Outside it was dark
by krage
Summary: A girl challanges Tyson to a match. Her presense sparks off memories in Kai that he would rather not remember. Is Kai's past catching up with him?
1. Default Chapter

Outside it was dark. The sort of pitch black that sends shivers down your spine. Rain was coming down in sheets, so heavy that it was amazing to think that it had been pouring like that for the past half hour.

In the words of Max, as the team were sheltering in Tyson's house. "How can one sky hold so much water?"

Ray, Tyson, Max, Kenny and even Kai were all sat around two large pizzas in the room used for training. Although Kai sat a little away from the others, barley listening to the others constant chatting.

They had ages to their next tournament, but they were still hanging around together. Even though the world championships had ended over a week ago. They all had their own reasons for this of course.

Tyson was seeing just how much pizza he could actually eat. While the others, with full stomachs were discussing beyblade strategies. Kai on the other hand was sitting back against a wall, with his arms crossed and eyes closed.

"Hey guys" Max announced, "its finally stopped raining". He grinned while gazing out the small window. Everything seemed so wet out there, but the raging downpour had finally ceased.

"Bad timing" Tyson said between mouthfuls. "Its way too late to go outside now".

A loud ringing of the front door bell halted any reply that might have been made.

"At this hour?" Ray wondered as Tyson's grandpa went to answer it.

"Tyson?" Ray said suspiciously, "You haven't been ordering extra pizza again have you?"

"No Ray, not me honest". The teenager had eventually stopped eating. Even though there were still around five slices left. A definite sign that he had taken the accusation personally.

"Yo, Tyson. Someone at the door for you, little dude."

The bladebreakers looked at each other, all clearly wondering the same thing. Who was at the door?

Tyson lead the way, and out of pure curiosity the rest of the team followed.

"See ya homeys, I'm gonna catch me some kip" Grandpa announced walking away from the door and to his bedroom.

And there at the door stood a girl, she looked around 14 years of age. Her jet-black hair was cut short unevenly. From under it a pair of blue green eyes fixed Tyson in her determined if slightly hostile gaze.

"You Tyson of the Bladebreakers?" The question was curt and to the point.

"That's me" Tyson rubbed the back of his neck with a grin. Something was very odd about her. That's when he noticed it. The rain had only stopped a minute ago, and she was bone-dry. Yet it seemed like she had been travelling for quite a while.

"Well then Tyson, I challenge you to a match."

"At this hour?" Then he paused "You're a blader?"

The girl held up a beyblade so they could see it. It was red with some articulate patterns of black on it. "That answer you're question?"

She raised an eyebrow questionly. "Now are you going to accept my challenge, or.......are you afraid you might lose?"

The added insult did its job nicely.

"I accept, but I won't be the one losing."

Protests were made by his teammates, and of course were ignored. The teenagers made their way outside to the battle dish. Leaving Kai as the only one left in the room. He frowned, deep in thought. There was something he was missing or forgetting. It felt like he'd seen that girl before. Or perhaps it was just his mind playing tricks on him. He shook his head in frustration, then went to watch the match.

"If I win Tyson, then I get to crash here for the night. If I lose, then I leave." The girl gave a smirk from the opposite end of the dish.

Tyson was taken aback, most people requested blade bits, lessons or autographs, not this. "Wh..h...y?"

"Cause its wet outside." She replied calmly, as if that was totally obvious.

She raised her shooter, to signal she was ready. Ray at least wasn't too confused to start the countdown.

"3........2.........1.....Let it Rip!"

Then both blades were off. "Go Tasmine" the girl yelled causing her blade to attack.

"Go Dragoon" Tyson yelled retaliating, this was harder than he'd thought it would be.

The blades bounced ruthlessly off each other in the fury of battle. The entire team held its breath as at one moment it seemed like Dragoon would be pushed over the edge.


	2. Winners and losers

"Watch out Tyson, the stats indicate that her beyblade is as strong as yours" Kenny yelled, ever the dramatic.

"Alright Chief" Tyson murmured not really listening. He was completely absorbed into the battle.

Dragoon suddenly dodged the onslaught and hit Tasmine with a blow that would send most normal blades into a million pieces. He regretted having to do that.

But although a large piece of the blade broke off under the power of the attack. The stranger's blade remained spinning. Admittedly it was wobbling so violently that everyone expected it to fall at any moment, but the fact that it was still spinning was amazing.

"Owwww" the cry of pain made Tyson pause his final attack to look confused at the girl. It was almost like when he had damaged her blade, he had hurt her as well.

The girl winced, that had hurt a lot. Tasmine did not look as if she could last much longer. But she could not afford to lose.

"No" she whispered. Then louder until she was near yelling.

"No, I will not lose, I can not lose. Tasmine attack!"

With that something impossible happened, her blade span faster. Red light glowed from her blade and engulfed the dome with unending brightness and heat.

They saw her bit beast, a wolf like creature surrounded with flames.

Then it was over; Tyson's blade lay defeated by his feet. Tasmine was still spinning in the dish, until the stranger called it to her hand.

With that she headed inside. Plainly ignoring everyone else.

"Wait!" Kenny cried "How on earth did you do that, according to my analysis..."

The girl simply opened the door and went inside. She made no indication that she had even heard.

"Wow" Tyson said moodily. "She reminds me of someone." He looked pointedly in Kai's direction; he was still sore from losing.

"Hmph" was Kai's only comment as he headed inside. It had started to rain again, so the remaining three made a mad rush for the door.

Kenny had already started to head back to his place.

When they got back into the room, Tyson was disappointed to find that out of the five remaining slices of pizza, three had mysteriously disappeared. He ate the last two grudgingly as Ray and Max tried to talk to the stranger.

A huge emphasis on tried.

"So where are you from?" Max asked cheerfully.

There was no answer. The stranger sat with her back to the wall, arms crossed and eyes shut. Much like what Kai was doing, only he was standing up. The girl's bag was placed close by her side.

"Do you think she's asleep?" Max asked Ray quietly.

"No, no-one can fall asleep that fast." He cleared his throat uneasierly.

"Um, I'm Ray, this is Max and....."

The eyes opened slowly, glaring at him.

"I know who you all are."

"But we don't know who you are" Ray protested.

"Rage"

"Huh?"

"My name, its Rage". Then she withdrew, clearly not thinking much of the idea of a conversation. She examined her damaged beyblade thoughtfully.

"We can help you fix that tomorrow" Max said, happily thinking of helping her. "My dad has a load of spare parts at his place".

"Whatever" she said, her face a blank.

"For a moment no-one said anything. Even Kai was looking at her curiously.

Ray was the first one to recover. "Come on", he said getting to his feet. He offered a hand to help her up. "I'll show you to the spare room".

Rage got to her feet ignoring the hand. She grabbed her bag and followed a very confused Ray out of the room.

"I still can't believe she beat me," Tyson moaned.

Max looked to Kai, now would be the time where he would tell Tyson to shut up and learn from his mistakes. To his surprise, Kai didn't say a word.


	3. Bad Dreams

That night dreams were not pleasant in Kai's sleep. He tossed and turned, as if trying to escape something.

There were knives, whips, chains and rooms so dark and small it felt like you'd been buried alive.

"No" yelled a younger Kai. He was being shoved into one of those rooms. He fell hard onto the cold floor, tasting blood in his mouth.

He forced himself up, running to the door. It closed with a loud clunk. Sealing him in the darkness. He battered at the freezing metal with his fists. He was afraid of what might be in the room with him. There were rumours.

"Let me out, I won't lose again, I promise I won't lose again".

And from behind the door came a rumberling voice.

"I'm sure you won't, not after being in there a while."

"Kai, Kai wake up".

"Won't lose...." Kai murmured, shaking his head.

"Kai, are you ok?"

"Wha..." Kai's grey eyes opened slowly. Max was looking down at him, he seemed worried. How much had he heard?

"You were having a nightmare, Kai." Max settled down back in his makeshift bed.

"Hmph" He had had nightmares before, just none bad enough to wake up the others. At least only Max had been woken up though.

"It sounded like a really bad one too" Max said sympathetic.

"What was it about?"

"Don't remember" Kai lied; he turned so his back was facing Max. Closing his eyes, on the pretence of going back to sleep.

"My dad says that it always helps talking over your nightmares with others." Max frowned when the only answer he got was shallow breathing. He must have already gone back to sleep. Either that or he just didn't want to answer.

Max fell back to sleep immediately. Kai lay awake for a long time before sleep drew him back into that dark room again.

The rusty sound of the door opening hurt his ears. Still it wasn't as much as the light blinded his eyes. For a moment he couldn't see, and remained huddled against the cold bricks. Had the door really opened, how long had he been in here? Surely it had only been an hour, much shorter than usual punishments. They had known to last for days.

Then he saw her, the girl he last lost against. Her hair was long and black. Her blue green eyes gleamed with fear as she beckoned him to come quietly.

"I can't let you stay in there because of me."

The younger Kai nodded, staring in awe as he stepped into the light.

"Come on" she said taking his hand. "We must leave now".

"Where?" Kai asked confused, they were just kids and Boris was powerful. Where would they go? How would they get out?

"Somewhere very far from here, where there are no dark rooms. Or people who would hurt us."

Kai gave a small smile, he would like that. He would like that very much.

It was her who first heard the footsteps. "Run" she yelled, before doing so herself.

Kai ran hesitantly, their follower was catching up fast. There was a small clunk of metal as the girl dropped something. She stopped, as did Kai.

It was her blade; she dashed to get it but was too late. It had been Boris who had been chasing them. He bent down with a smirk and picked it up. He held it roughly, squeezing it in his hand.

She froze, her face screwed up in agony. She was shaking.

"Come on" Kai yelled in her ear, trying to get her to snap out of it. Why wouldn't she move? Didn't she know what would happen if Boris caught them.

He panicked when Boris was standing right in front of them. He ran, only to be pulled roughly back by his shirt.

"You are going back where you belong" Boris snarled in his ear.

"And as for you my dear" he shoved the girl into the waiting hands of a guard that had just shown up.

"Take her to Bathos Schild, I'm sure he'll love to know what his step-daughters been up to."

The frozen girl gave a whimper of dismay.

"Give him this as well" Boris said tossing the guard the blade. "Don't give it to the girl, but make sure it and the girl don't get separated. Ok?"

Then the girl was gone, and Kai was back in the room. Left to ponder Boris's farewell to him.

"You'll be lucky if you're ever allowed out of there."


	4. Gone?

So that was why she had seemed familiar.

Kai got up and washed and dressed quickly. It was a little past seven. Much later than he usually got up.

For the first time in ages, both Ray and Max were up before him. Tyson was of course still asleep and would be for a while.

Kai entered the kitchen quietly. Ray had made pancakes. Both Max and Ray were deep in conversation about something.

"So I'm worried about him, I mean it's just not like him to...." Max stopped talking abruptly when he noticed Kai.

"Hi Kai" he said loudly.

"Hmph" was Kai's answer as he sat down to eat some breakfast. Had they been talking about him? He shrugged it off, it really didn't matter what they decided to talk about. As long as it didn't affect him.

Tyson finally woke up at nine o'clock. Ray was kind enough to cook another batch of pancakes just for him. Then Ray went to check if Rage wanted any breakfast.

Max was in the garden running his blade through an assault course of cans. When Ray came back looking annoyed.

"She give you a bad time, Ray?" Tyson asked walking out to the garden with his breakfast finished.

"No" Ray answered frowning with confusion. "But she's not there. The bed doesn't even look slept in."

Kai looked up from where he was sitting on the porch. That wasn't good; he'd wanted to talk to her. To check if his dream was really true, and to know what had happened to her.

It was true that up till recently all he'd wanted to do was forget what happened there. However, there was something compelling about sorting out his jumbled memories. She might have been able to help him figure out some stuff. Not that it mattered now; it didn't seem likely that she would come back.

He walked away silently, going back into the house. Into the training room, not one of the usual places he went to be alone. But for now it seemed necessary. Which was more important; what had happened in the past? Or keeping his silence?

Why did he even want to know what had happened anyway? It wasn't like it mattered anymore.

"Kai?"

"What do you want Ray?" Kai sighed; this was going to be annoying.

"What's up with you Kai? You've been acting so weird recently."

Had he really been acting that differently? "Hmph" was the key answer he gave. It was true that he'd been a bit distant recently, but he hadn't thought it was that obvious.

"I talked to Max".

"Hmph"

Ray sighed. "You're acting like when we first met. I thought you'd got over that. You don't need to be so guarded you know".

That had been unexpected. "Look Ray, I don't need you're advice. Nor do I want it."

Where had that come from?

Kai hesitated; he hadn't meant to be that abrupt. He'd get over it, he decided and walked off.

His exit was blocked by a very happy Max.

"Hey guys," he announced, "Rage came back, and we're heading over to my place to fix her blade. You guys wanna come?"

"Sure" Ray said, "Did she say where she was?"

"Uh huh, yeah she said she went for a walk".

Ray mentally shook his head, still recovering from his 'chat' with Kai. Why did he even bother?

* * *

Thanx for the reviews, this is my first fan-fiction, so it means a lot.

Rena Kon: Hope u like the chapters I put up

Drago-Kai: The girl won AND I updated, yah happy?

Suicide-greeting: A forth chap 4 u to read.

Read and review plz.


	5. Questions

Kenny had gone out for the day. Which still left Max, Ray, Kai and Rage to sit around in Max's room, discussing what spare parts to use.

Tyson was currently being coached by Hilary in Max's beyblade dish.

Kai was leaning back against the far wall. Rage had retreated into a corner, but close enough to watch Max and Ray searching through boxes of beyblade parts.

"You know Rage, to fix your blade. I'm going to have to actually hold it." Max said smiling. Up till now he had been fine with just looking at the blade. And she hadn't been anxious for him to touch it. But he needed to fit the parts together now.

He put out his hand, his expression patient.

Rage grimaced, this she had not been looking forward to. She moved her hand slowly so that the blade was just above his hand. Then she chickened out, drawing her blade back to her desperately.

Max raised his eyebrows, but other than that he didn't move. The whole room was silent, waiting.

Rage gritted her teeth, and put out her hand again. This time when the blade was over his hand she drew a deep breath and dropped it into his palm. Then as if it had just been burned, she withdrew her hand quick as lightning.

She retreated even further into the corner. Her eyes were squeezed shut, and her knees drew up to her chest. So she was almost sitting in a foetus position. Her hands were clenched, nails digging into her palms.

Kai didn't move, he merely stared fascinated at the girl. This was the girl from his memory alright. He could now consider it a memory rather than just a dream.

Flashback 

"Come on" the younger Kai yelled in the girl's ear, trying to make her run. Why wouldn't she move? Didn't she know what would happen if Boris caught them.

It was as if when Boris had picked up her blade, he had already caught her. She had froze, her face registering agony every time he attempted to crush the blade in his hands.

End Flashback 

Both Ray and Max were shocked at the reaction.

"What's wrong with her? Hey Rage, are you alright?" Max asked, worried. He held her blade lightly in his hand. While looking to Ray for guidance. His blue eyes were wide and desperate, hating to see her suffer.

Ray appeared as confused as Max was.

Kai sighed, must he do everything around here.

"Its quite simple really" he began, instantly gaining their full attention.

"When someone other than herself holds that blade, it hurts her. So I suggest that Max hurry's up and finishes her blade, so she can have it back."

With that speech over and done with Kai leaned back against the wall again, crossed his arms and closed his eyes. This gave him the power to relax and focus.

Max worked faster and more delicately than he had ever done before.

Ray seated himself next to Rage, to try and offer some comfort to her. He was ignored.

Then about half way through the fixing process. Rage opened her eyes, to stare weakly at Kai.

"You........re....re...mem...ber?" She asked his motionless figure. Her voice was horse with pain.

Kai thought of lying to her. To make the past stay in the past, but he could not deny her the truth.

"Yes" he said simply, not moving, not even opening his eyes.

No one talked again until her finished blade was placed back in her hand. She smiled, instantly recovered.

"Wow" Tyson said entering the room. "She can manage a smile, maybe she's not that much like Kai after all".

"So let me get this straight," Ray said fixing Kai into his gaze. "You knew Rage before we met her?"

"I missed something didn't I?" Tyson wailed, disappointed. "Kai knows Rage? How?"

"We were just about to figure that out Tyson, Kai?" Ray asked, turning once again to the teen leaning against the wall.

"Hmph" Kai was not in the mood for answering questions right now.

"Kai, its no big deal just tell them," Rage said while pocketing her blade.

Kai opened his eyes moodily.

"We were both at Boris's abbey when we were kids. She won a blading match against me and then we both attempted a escape which failed." He closed his eyes again, he's talked way too much today. Why wouldn't they just leave him alone?

"He left out all the gory details, as usual" Rage said grinning. She seemed so different from the cold, ruse person she's been yesterday. To be honest, Kai preferred yesterday's version. That had been much more predictable. Just what was she up to?

Hilary interrupted her quickly. "Did Kai just say a full sentence, how long has that been?"

Rage stood in front of the silent Kai.

"I know you have a question you want to ask me" Rage said staring into his closed eyes.

Kai had been wrong about her, she was annoying.

"If I do, will you leave me alone?"

"Perhaps"

Kai sensed that was the best deal he could get out of her.

"What happened to you after?" This was boring but if she would leave, then it would be worth it.

"After we were captured, oh nothing much. I was locked in a cage so small I could stand up. For like a year, literally a year. I couldn't walk for ages after."

Kai's eyes sprang with surprise.

"No blading? Boris would never...."

"Not Boris"

Kai remembered. "Bathos"

She cringed at the name. "Bathos Schild".

Everyone else in the room was still. Even Tyson was looking between Kai and Rage with his jaw dropped.

"Now I'll leave you alone, perhaps, for the time at least."

With that she stormed out of the room.

"Um Kai, who's Bathos Schild?" Max asked cautiously. Kai had gone back into total block out the world posture. So max doubted he'd get a reply.

"Hmph"

Ray very much doubted that they'd get a longer reply than that from Kai. For a while at least.


	6. Captured

The next day Kai woke up at dawn. He'd been having bad dreams again, memories were coming back to haunt him. At least, he thought they were memories. Things were so jumbled in his head; he wanted to be able to think straight. He headed down to the pier to clear his head; he liked to go there to be alone.

Today was not his lucky day however. Because right there where he liked to stand stood Rage.

He paused, and then stood next to her. He enjoyed the view of the sea from here, it was strangely calming.

"I thought you wanted to stay away from me". She said that without turning.

"Ray says you're going to leave today". It was a bad effort to restore peace, but an effort none the less.

"He's right" There was an uneasy silence, in which both looked out to sea.

Then like she had just heard something, Rage's head sprang up. She looked around alarmed, before her eyes seemed to focus on something in the distance.

Kai felt it too, something wasn't right. It was like being watched. He tried to see what Rage was looking at. There was a flash of light, glinting off something. He swore under his breath.

"Run" Rage shouted, reminding Kai harshly of the memory in which their escape had gone so wrong.

She needn't had bothered, Kai was already running. He had been as soon as he saw the flash. His instincts weren't that slow.

Suddenly a searing pain shot across his neck. He put his hand up and felt metal. A dart, he stared at it fascinated. Rage was screaming at him, but it didn't matter. It sounded so far away.

He barley felt the second dart pierce his shoulder before he fell. The last thing he heard was shouting, it sounded like Ray's voice. Then smothering blackness rose over him. And he was gone from consciousness.

When he awoke, he blinked dully. There was a light in the room and it hurt his eyes. Cold metal encased his wrists, everything was blurred and hard to focus on.

He leaned forward so he was on his knees, half wanting to retch. There was a dull metallic taste in his mouth and he wanted rid of it.

His ears were immediately assaulted by voices.

"Kai's awake"

"Finally"

"Are you alright Kai?" That was from a figure kneeling in front of him, Ray. Kai moved his gaze upwards so he was glaring him in the eyes. His special death glare.

"Guess that was a stupid question, huh?" Ray was shaken by the anger contained in that one look.

Kai cleared his throat, it felt uncomfortably dry.

"Where?" His voice sounded horse. "How?"

"We don't know where, as for how. I was shot with a dart when I went to look for you guys. Tyson and Max were given chloeform."

"We can tell our own story Ray" Tyson objected.

Kai spaced out from their meaningless banter for the moment. Why had they been captured? Was it for their bitbeasts again? No, Dranzer was still in his pocket, so why?

Kai realized that Max was looking at him with expectant eyes.

"Huh?" he asked, having apparently missed something.

"These goons came in, and they really seemed to hate you Kai. They gave you that" Max said pointing at Kai's mouth.

Kai put a hand to his mouth; his lip was swollen and sore. When he took away his hand, blood gleamed wetly on his fingertips.

"So I was kinda wondering if you knew why?"

"I apparently know less about this situation than you Max". Kai said the words slowly, not wishing to irritate his bloody lip. His gaze did not move from the blood until after Max had blushed and gone back to talk to Ray.

Then he examined the room closely, hoping it would answer some questions. The room was small; it looked like an old fashioned cell. Or a dungeon, the bricks were cold and uncovered. The door was metal. He shuddered suddenly; this was too much like his past.

He drew comfort from the sharp glare of the light. The cell was bigger than the dark room of his dreams, he supposed at least. It was quite hard to judge just how big the dark rooms were.

Also, fitted in the wall surrounded by grey lifeless bricks was a monitor screen. He was surprised that he had not noticed it until now. Although being grey itself against the grey background of the wall probably hadn't helped.

Something was missing.

"Where's Rage?"

"I don't know, she hasn't been in here." Ray said, a frown on his face.

"Hey, maybe she didn't get caught" Max put in, forever the optimistic.

"Hmph" that didn't make sense, he knew she'd only been a little in front of him when he went down.

She seemed to be making a habit out of disappearing. As much as he hated to admit it, he had drawn a small comfort at having her around. She at least had a vague idea of what horrors he faced in his dreams. His memories.

Flashback 

Hands were shoving him into a tank. He didn't want to go, he tried to run the other way. But a sharp slap shocked him, and before he had regained his wits he was in the square container. The younger Kai stared helpless at the adults that watched him.

Then the tank bubbled, beginning to fill with water. He clawed at the glass, but the opening had already been sealed. There was no way out.

He shuddered uncontrollably as the liquid passed his neck. This was another punishment, that he was sure of. And as the icy water passed over his eyes, he stared at the watery image of his grandfather and wondered. Just what had he done this time?

End Flashback 

At that moment there was a huge rusty creaking as the door was slowly opened.

Kai jumped up from his sitting on the floor, he had been waiting for this. The fact that his wrists were cuffed together made little difference to him.

He readied himself to fight. Ray saw this and did the same. Then a figure came through the door and stood before Kai.

Kai just stared, shocked.


	7. It begins

Other men poured through the door, three of them. Although another two stood watching by the door. Two of them caught Ray roughly by the shoulders and pushed him back down. There was a loud crack as his head hit the wall. He just sat there nursing his head, and it was his turn for his fingers to come away with blood on them.

Volitare stood in front of his grandson, and Kai stood in front of him. Kai had recovered from his shock and was already giving his grandfather his best death glare.

"Kai, you have done many things that need.....reprimanding." Volitare's face was void of emotion, seemingly unaffected by the look of fury he was receiving.

Then, just as suddenly as it had begun the look of anger was gone. Only to be replaced by an emotionless one.

"So, this is a revenge mission is it old man?"

"Not in the least, it is more an opportunity".

"To do what?" Kai asked, his voice overflowing with sarcasm.

"Either you join back with me, or I'll make you join me".

Kai laughed, wondering just how many times his grandfather had watched the Star Wars movies. It is not pretty when Kai laughs, it sounds so cold and devoid of any humour.

Volitaire nodded and giving a signal to the men, left the room. The men advanced, two of them went to guard Tyson, Ray and Max. While the other three surrounded Kai, gesturing that he leave the room with them.

Kai took a step forward and stopped, looking at his friends. He wasn't sure he wanted to leave them after all. He shook his head slowly.

They came toward him; apparently they had already been told what to do in this situation.

He dropped and knocked the first one off his feet with a sweeping kick. Then got back up to his feet, only to be hit around the head by the second. The blow dazed him, he felt warmth spread down the side of his face and he guessed correctly that it was blood.

Before he realised what had happened, he was being dragged out of the door and through a hallway. He struggled viciously until someone decided to deal him another blow. It sent a jar through his head and for the second time that day, he became unconscious. This is what comes from being stubborn.

The remaining team were left alone in the cell. They had tried to help, but their bound hands prevented them from shooting their blades. Also they themselves were being watched carefully.

Now they were left alone, all three of them were thinking of Kai's struggle. It was Max who spoke first.

"Why do you think he did that guys? I mean, why get more hurt than you have to?"

"Its like he's testing them, testing the barriers of the situation." Ray said thoughtfully.

"This is Kai we're talking about guys, there is no explanation to half the things he does" Tyson stated.

They had all explored the room deeply, and found nothing that could help them.

They were sitting on the floor listening to Max's attempts to keep their spirits up. When the TV screen sprung on, they were all startled and peered into the room it was showing.

There was Kai, with his head slumped forward. His handcuffs were off, but had been replaced by chains. These were chained to the ceiling, pulling his arms above his head. His eyes were closed, but every now and again his muscles would twitch and small moans would leave his mouth. He was dreaming. He did not notice the man appear behind him on the screen. He was fingering a whip, and then on an order drew it back ready to strike.

"No" they yelled "Kai wake up!" Kai didn't move and the whip came down to crash on his back.

* * *

Hmmm, what do you think? Read and review.

suicide-greeting- Many thanx to you for your reviews, they're a great help in getting me to write more.

Tamara Tate- i've wrote more, read and tell me what you think


	8. Pain

**Dream Sequence**

_There were bloodied knives, sharp whips and pounding fists. All of these images flashed by his closed eyes. Fire, burning flesh, ice-cold water that seared at his skin. He could never be rid of them. Nor the over powering sense of fear that accompanied them._

**End dream sequence**

All of a sudden there was pain. Not remembered pain, real present pain. His eyes sprang open, and a strangled groan escaped his throat.

It felt like there was fire sweeping across his back. Then another stroke caused him to scream away the pain.

Before the third could land on his torn blood soaked back. His senses came back. He was in the presence of Volitaire, and he was being whipped.

He gritted his teeth for the next stroke, determined not to scream. He shuddered instead as the whip landed on his already tender back. He turned his head to the side, not noticing his tear stained cheeks.

There was a monitor on the wall. Kai focused on it, glad that if he stared at this he could think away what was happening. There were his team members on the screen. They looked worried.

He reached slowly up to grab a handful of chain in each hand. These he gripped onto as the next stinging blow was dealt. Then he gave his friends a smile. Not a very convincing one as he was covered in blood and tears. But he hoped that it would give some comfort. After all, they weren't used to this.

"Why are they doing this to you Kai?" The Max from the screen shouted. Tears were overflowing from his eyes, to travel down his cheeks.

Kai just stared, startled. He had heard that, and then he saw the speakers and it made sense. He flinched from the next strike, but continued to stare blankly at the screen. He couldn't think of an answer for that.

"Maybe" Kai croaked, winching as another blow was dealt.

"They're......crazy". There was more to say, but as the whip landed across his back for the seventh time. He felt too tired to add anymore. He turned away from the screen, wishing they didn't have to see this.

Another blow, he groaned wondering if they would overdo it. If they would kill him.

"You know, this can stop anytime," said a deep voice in front of him.

He looked up weakly, it was Volitaire. When did he get there?

"All you need to do is join back. For your first task you can remove the bitbeasts from your friends in there." He gestured to the screen, acting as if he had just given him the easiest job to do.

Kai looked to the screen, at the worried faces. He turned away, not even considering.

"You will change your mind soon enough" he walked away from Kai's line of sight, and gave the order.

"Carry on Bathos".

Bathos, Kai thought dully. Rage's Bathos? What was going on here? Then Bathos struck again, and Kai swallowed a scream.

Kai summoned his remaining strength and spoke to Voitaire in a voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Are you trying to kill me old man?" He knew he'd be in the room, watching.

"No, but you will die if you do not join us. We need dark dranzer for our plan to work. Since you are the only one who can wield it, you must join back with us".

Kai looked up suddenly, they were gone. Why were they gone, was it over? Something in him said otherwise.

On his left the monitor screen had changed. Now it was of a different room, and Volitaire's face filled the screen. It defiantly wasn't an improvement.

"Join Me," the voice ordered.

Kai turned away, not even dignifying the statement with a response.

There was something wrong here, something he hadn't noticed.

He looked down and saw it. The floor was metal, his feet were bare. When had that happened, he hadn't noticed.

He looked up at his chains and knew, this was going to be bad. Very bad indeed.

"Dranzer" he whispered, and closed his eyes.

The beyblade in his pocket glowed in response.

Then electricity poured through his chains, through him. And to the floor. He couldn't remove his hands from their death grip with the chains.

Despite dranzer sharing the pain, to help him cope. Kai screamed.

* * *

What do you guys think? 

read and review


	9. Wounded

Loads of ppl are doing disclaimers so i'm gonna do one, this once at least.

Disclaimer: I don't own beyblade (damn it), but I do own Rage, and Bathos and any other OC's that you see in my story. So there!

* * *

With every stroke, the trio watching the screen winched. What was showing them this meant to do, apart from hate the adults in that room.

When Kai screamed, his voice filled with pain. Max's eyes filled with tears. Nobody blamed him for that. He had always been the most sensitive of the group. To see Kai in so much pain, and being unable to help him must be the hardest thing that he had ever faced.

When he smiled, it was worse. It was like he thought they were the ones who needed comforting. Instead of the other way around.

Seeing him like that was tough. Half his face was sheeted with blood. Even when he couldn't take it anymore, Ray never looked away. Neither did the others, they had to be with him for this.

Finally the adults left the room. Leaving the slumped Kai behind. The screen went blank, and they sat down in silence.

Far away they heard screaming.

"That's enough" Max said dashing to the door. Ray got to his feet as Max began hitting at the metal surface. Which is quite a hard thing to do with bound hands.

"Stop hurting him you monsters, why won't you just leave him alone!"

"Max" Ray sighed, the blond teen turned to him with tears sliding down his face.

"Ray, we've got to help him" Max pleaded.

"Forget it Max" Ray said as kindly as he could. "We can't do anything for him right now".

Max lowered his head, accepting the facts.

Tyson was unusually quiet; he just didn't know how to react in a situation such as this.

* * *

A little while later the door opened again. That rusty creaking sound was becoming familiar. 

No one had time to react as a body was thrown roughly into the cell. It was Kai. He was grateful that they had neglected to bind his hands again. Apart from the damage that would do to the burnt skin on his wrists and hands, it also enabled him to land on his side. He winched as the raw skin on his hands and feet scraped along the cold floor.

Then he stopped in the far left corner of the cell. His limbs were sprawled oddly, but he made no attempt to move them. He just blinked for a moment at his friends, and then closed his eyes. There were things that had to be blocked out, the pain and the noise. As well as the expressions his friends wore. He just wanted silence for a minute, just a minute to pretend that he was on his own. That there was no pain.

They were shouting, he ignored it.

* * *

"Why are you doing this to him, he's your grandson for gods sake!" Tyson yelled at the top of his lungs, making up for his previous silence. 

Volitaire was unimpressed by the volume of Tyson's voice. He stood in the doorway while his men pushed the youths back off their feet.

"I have given Kai a choice, I will give you one too. Give me your bitbeasts and Kai's pain ends."

He gave a hollow laugh at their pained expressions.

"I'll leave you to think about it shall I?"

With that he and his men left the room, the door slamming loudly behind them.

"Anyone who even considers that 'offer' will have to answer to me." Everyone jumped at the suddanty of the voice.

Kai glared up at then from his position on the floor. It was amazing how he could look so imposing, while seeming so wounded.

"Kai, you're awake!"

"I was never asleep Tyson."

Kai began to rise from his position using his elbows. He growled with anger at the helping hands he received. However he managed it, soon he was sitting with his head leaned back against the wall so his back needn't touch it. His feet lay in front of him. While his hands were still positioned as if he were holding the chains in his hands. He did not admit that he couldn't move them.

The other's eyes were pulled between the various wounds. Kai's eyes had closed again and Max and Ray were trying to clean the blood from his face.


	10. Planning

"How the hell are we gonna get out of here?" Tyson was wailing again.

Kai was glad when the monitor flicked back on; it was better than Tyson's blathering.

Volitaire grinned at them from the screen. On his face a grin just seemed wrong and sick.

"Have you considered my offer?"

"The answer is no old man, for both offers" Kai didn't even open his eyes when answering.

Volitaire seemed surprised that Kai was still conscious. Then he regained his emotionless face and continued.

"Very well, then I have a new offer. Kai you start following my orders and join me or....."

He paused calmly to take a sip of water.

"One of your little friends here is put through exactly what you've been through just now. No more, no less."

Kai's eyes shot open at that.

"They're not used to treatment like that, you might end up killing them."

Kai leaned forward slightly.

"They have families, families who won't take they're deaths lightly." He snarled it at the screen, a threat.

His vision blurred, but the screen had gone blank. He leaned back again, hoping his head would stop spinning soon.

"I think Kai's right, I'm not sure I could survive that" Max said sadly, forever the honest one.

"Speak up Kai, buddy we can't hear you". Tyson said, he had heard the team captain whisper something.

"Third floor" Kai said louder, staring at them weakly.

He saw their looks of confusion and began again.

"We are on....the third floor" Kai swallowed painfully and continued.

"Windows locked, double glazed, metal bars, but their flimsy ones."

"Stairs, turn left out of our 'cell', ten metres down to the right." His words were picking up speed as he talked them through the floor plan.

"The room I was in, to the left, down the hallway, last room on the left. There is also an elevator on the right, end of the hallway, to the right. I suggest taking the stairs, there are only two guards by the stairs. Another two by the elevator. Although there are bound to be more somewhere."

"Alright!" Tyson said punching the air with his fist, "A escape plan".

"Um, Kai, can you even walk?" Max asked, a worried expression on his face.

Kai looked thoughtful for a moment, and then tried to pull off the remains of his shirt. No good, the partially dried blood had already made the cloth glued tight to his skin. Plus his hands weren't helping much.

To everyone's surprise, Kai removed his precious scarf and began with a great deal of concentration to tear it in half. He ignored everyone's offers of assistance and forced his fingers to work. Sometimes assisting with his teeth.

When he was done, he very reluctantly accepted a small amount of help in binding them around his feet. Eventually they were tight enough and they got back to organising their escape attempt.

"So it's decided then, when they next open that door we're out of here." Ray was clearly relieved that there was some hope at least of leaving this place.

"Listen" Immediately everyone turned to Kai to hear what he had to say.

"We only need one person to raise the alarm, so if anyone falls behind leave them behind. Is that agreed?"

They nodded their agreement and turned away. It was clear that with his inquires they suspected that he would be that person. He knew it too, it was written all over his face.

Kai hated feeling this helpless, but if he could get them out then he wouldn't have anyone to protect anymore. He doubted whether he would make it himself, but he would certainly try.

* * *

Hmmm, what ya rekon? 

Thanks for your reviews

Tamara Tate: thank you for your reviews

suicide-greeting: Thank you for your reviews

Kikyo: A new reviewer YAY, a new chappie 4 u to read. And wow thats a lot of praise blushes hope u keep on reading.

Read and review.


	11. Escape

Everyone was ready when the door next opened. Volitaire and most of his men were too surprised to do anything about the sudden stampede of youths. The few left with enough sense to fight were knocked down by an enthusiastic Tyson.

Ray kicked one of the stair guards off his feet. While Kai managed his sweeping drop kick on the other. Hiding how much this hurt him.

He was annoyed when Max slowed down for him on the stairs. The blond teen had been afraid that Kai would fall in his state. But a cold stare from Kai soon sent Max ahead.

Kai could feel the cloth binding his feet begin to come loose. He kept on running, ignoring how his feet burned with every step. He was only a little behind the other three, but the guards were hot on his heels.

A single slip and they would have him. They were on the ground floor now, and to their right was the exit. He ran towards it.

A blow sent him flying backwards, into a nearby wall. He caught his breath confused, what had just happened?

Then he saw him through distorted vision, Boris. He had what looked to be an old electric rod in his hands. Only it had malfunctioned, so it was essentially a metal rod with an odd shaped end. Kai stood as straight as he could, the ground swaying around him.

He was surrounded; the way to the outside was blocked. He couldn't see the other bladers anywhere. To his right was another set of stairs. These were leading down, to a basement.

He made up his mind and stumbled down the stairs. He would be stubborn again. He would probably get hurt, but he wouldn't give in that easierly.

When he was almost at the bottom, he tripped. Falling at an angle head first into a room. Someone had thrown their electric rod at him, he was betting Boris.

He grabbed the rod, and pulled himself the rest of the way into the room.

They were almost in the basement now. On impulse he shut the double doors, closing himself in the room.

He quickly laced the rod through the door handles. Glad that the odd shaped end held it in place.

His right leg was feeling strangely numb. He stared at the door as it began to shake with fists and raised voices.

He sat in the middle of the floor and began to shake as well. Only, part of this wasn't caused by the cold.

* * *

I guess this is my shortest chappy ever. The next one will be longer I promise.

Oh, and please tell me what you think. Read and review.


	12. Where's Kai?

Ray led the escapees out through the doors. He faltered slightly as he found himself in a car park. Then he carried on running at breakneck speed.

Tyson found a phone box and dialled Mr Dickinson's number. It was what they were used to doing in situations like this.

Ray was staring in awe at the neighbourhood. It looked so peaceful and quiet. He could barley believe that the bland looking office building was they'd been held captive. There was no sign of the men who had chased them.

"Ray!" Max said suddenly "Where's Kai?"

Ray looked around and saw that Max was right. Kai was no-where to be seen.

After much arguing, they grudgingly agreed to wait for the police. Mostly because Me Dickinson insisted and partly to do with the fact that they were still hand cuffed. That fact was earning them some strange looks from passers by.

They weren't surprised to see that amongst the police cars and ambulances Mr Dickinson's car was there. What they were surprised about was the fact that Hilary, Kenny and Rage stepped out of his car as well.

Policemen swarmed into the building, while medics swarmed around the boys. Tyson and Max managed to fight their way through the crowd to Mr Dickinson. After convincing the medics that they weren't suffering from anything. Ray with his head wound wasn't so lucky.

"So mister D, what's the news, have you found Kai yet?"

"I'm afraid its bad news Tyson, police have been through the entire building and haven't found anyone yet. There are a number of locked rooms..." Mr Dickinson said to the worried youth.

"But" continued a police lady that Mr Dickinson had been talking to. "These doors are pretty solid and will take a long time to get into. Plus there's so many of them."

"But Kai needs help now, he's in real bad shape" Max pleaded.

"I can help" came a sudden voice from behind Max. There stood Rage, who now turned to the police lady.

"You get your guys out of there for five minutes and I'll find Kai in no time."

The police lady looked to Mr Dickinson who nodded his approval. She smiled at the teenagers.

"I'll see what I can do."

* * *

"My name is detective Alice Thompson by the way" was what she said as two minutes later they approached the building.

Ray hadn't been able to come, as they were still fussing over his head wound. Kenny had stayed with him, so the group now consisted of the detective, Rage, Tyson, Max, Hilary and two medics.

They all introduced themselves. Rage walked ahead of the others and stopped when she stepped into the building. She was clearly examining the room; paying no attention to the questions the medics were asking the boys about Kai's condition.

"Alice" she said capturing the whole group's attention as well. "You want to know what happened here, don't you?"

"That's my job" was the easy reply.

"There" Rage said pointing at a spot at the bottom of the stairs. There were small smears of blood there they realised.

"He was running, then" she frowned moving to the top of another flight of stairs.

"He was hit to here, surrounded".

"How do you know this?" asked Alice suspiously.

"Mostly by smell, instinct from my bitbeast. Plus I watch CSI."

Rage walked carefully down the stairs, the others followed.

"He ran down here and tripped there," she pointed to a closed double door.

She pushed against it lightly and they saw that it wasn't locked, but jammed from the inside.

"He shut himself in here, many people wanted to get in but they couldn't. He's in there still." Rage said pushing harder and examining the door. Suddenly her face turned a deathly white.

"Hilary" she said, her voice commanding. "You won't want to see this, go and see how Ray is doing".

Hilary was about to argue when she met Rage's eyes. She turned around meekly and went to do as told.

Tyson and Max were glad to have the full use of their arms back. The police had expertly uncuffed them before they re-entered the building. They stood by ready to help.

"Kai, its Rage".

The door was going to be near impossible to force. If it had just been locked it might have been easier. Rage was just about to repeat her message to Kai when she heard something.

"Are they gone?" The voice was so quiet that even Rage had trouble hearing it. And her hearing was known for its acuteness.

"Yes Kai, they've gone. But Tyson and Max are here". Rage shot each of them a look.

"We're here Kai" Max called, understanding that Kai needed proof before he opened that door."

"We made it out fine, and the police are here...."

"We can't open the door from this side Kai, you're going to have to help us" Rage said interrupting Tyson.

Kai groaned as he tried to get on his feet. He ached all over, and his right leg refused to hold his weight. But he knew he had to do this. He used his left leg to push himself toward the door.

Every movement sent a jarring pain through his back and chest. He winced as his back touched the cold metal of the door. Then he reached up and using his arms rather than his hands. He hit the rod that was holding the doors together. Until finally with a clang it hit the floor and the door opened.

The light from the hallway was dim. But Kai still closed his eyes against it. After sitting in a pitch black room to him the light was blinding.

He heard Rage whisper "Just like old times". She sounded near, but he didn't open his eyes to check. His task done, he allowed himself to slip out of consciousness.

"Jesus" Alice said as Kai was rushed by on the stretcher the two medical men had brought. And she was supposed to be the hardened police detective. Then she looked at the two boys and imagined how must feel, he is their friend after all.

"Tell you what, you lot must be hungry after that ordeal. How about we go down to the hospital, I hear it has a nice cafeteria. You can tell me what happened, and we can wait for news on your friend. How does that sound?"

Both boys readily agreed, especially Tyson who could not believe that he had missed a whole days worth of meals.

"I'd be interested in your input too Rage...." She looked up, but the girl had gone.

* * *

Please read and review. How am i supposed to know what you think about it if u don't tell me. K, ya got that read and review.

Oh, and does anyone know where I got Alice Tompson's name from. Cause I have no idea, it just seems like her name. Just popped into my head.

Thankyou to those who have reviewed. Its a huge help. I'll try and do another chapter tomorrow, so check it out ok.


	13. Hospital

Pretty soon they were all sat in the hospital cafeteria. Tyson was telling the tale between bites of food. While Max and Ray (who was sporting a bandage tied around his head) butted in every now and again to add some bit of information that Tyson had forgot or neglected to tell.

Alice had convinced one of the doctors to page her as soon as Kai got out of the operating theatre. But Hilary and Kenny were just picking at their food in worry. Alice had to admit that she was worried herself, but it would be thoughtless to act that way in front of the teens. She had seen bad cases before, but none such as this. Doing that over a bunch of bitbeasts just made no sense to her. After all it had only been about ten minutes ago from these guys that she had learned what a bitbeast was.

Finally Tyson finished his story and after a few more questions, Alice turned off her tape recorder and put it in her pocket.

"Hey, do you reckon they'll catch Volitaire and his goons?" Max asked, he had finished eating a while ago. They were only waiting for Tyson to stop stuffing his face now.

"Well, I'll be honest with you. We've no clue as to where they've gone. And the permission to search his properties are hard to get."

"But" she added as their faces fell. "I am in charge of this case, so when we find them I'm going to personally make sure Volitaire goes away for a very long time. Kidnapping minors is a very serious offence. And since Volitaire is Kai's guardian, we can go as far as getting him for child abuse as well."

A thought struck her suddenly, and she paused with her coffee halfway to her mouth.

"How has Kai's childhood been?" she was wondering if there had been any previous abuse. After all, something this big has got to have some history too it.

"Kai's not really the type of person who likes to talk about his childhood." Ray said, knowing that he was seriously understating the matter.

"He's not really the sort of person who likes to talk at all" Max added with a slight smile.

Alice was relieved when her pager finally buzzed. Tyson didn't even object to leaving food still on the table, they all needed to know how Kai was.

* * *

"How's he doing doctor?" Alice asked, her face a picture of concern.

They were standing in Kai's private room. Paid for by Mr Dickinson.

The others were too shocked by Kai's appearance to say anything. He looked too vulnerable to be Kai, even when he had been tortured he hadn't seemed as vulnerable as this.

An oxygen mask covered his mouth. Various wires and plugs were attached to him. A monitor played out the steady beat of his heart by his side. An IV lead was attached to his arm.

As well as this, his head was bandaged, as well as his hands and feet. More bandages were concealed under the hospital blanket that covered him. He seemed so helpless just lying there.

"Your friend has had a tough time of it, but I'm glad to say that he's stable."

The doctor ran a hand through his black hair, clearly intimidated by the level of attention he was receiving.

"I'll state the inquires from top to bottom shall I?" he asked Alice.

She nodded and took out her notebook to jot the information down.

"The head wound was relatively minor as it only required three stitches. Back wounds indicate that he was whipped a total of ten times. He also broke his right leg, but it is a clean light break that should heal in no time."

"As well as that his wrists, hands and the soles of his feet are all burned. His whole body also seems to have suffered severe muscle trauma. The burns are consistent with electric burns and indicate that the patient was electrocuted."

"Excuse me doctor, but did you just say electrocuted?!" Kenny asked, his voice becoming shrill.

"Yes, and my name is Tom Gibbons. You can call me Tom. I am your friend's personal doctor now." He smiled.

Most of the group smiled back he seemed nice enough, Hilary was staring. Tyson dug her in the ribs, which of course started an argument.

"What I'm most worried about" Tom said thoughtfully, not realising that his words had succeeded in silencing the pair.

"Is not his resent inquires, but his scars. They may not be as noticeable as some, but they show he's certainly had a time of it."

Alice frowned, her concerns turning out to be true.

* * *

I would have updated sooner but the fanfiction net was overflowed.

Anyhow, you know the drill. Read and review.

Plus where the heck did i get Tom Gibbons and Alice Tompson's names from. Weird stuff popping in my head.


	14. Waking up

Two days later and Kai still hadn't woke up.

The bladebreakers and Hilary were dotted around Kai's hospital room. All very, very bored.

"I spy something beginning with…..'I'." Tyson said, sitting on the floor.

"You made that up Tyson, there isn't anything beginning with 'I' in this room". Hilary had used her bossiness to take the only chair. But Tyson was still getting on her nerves.

"Idiot" came a quiet voice, Kai had moved the mask off his face without them noticing.

"Are you talking about yourself again Tyson?"

"Kai!" Tyson said happily, not seeming to realise that he had just been insulted.

"Could I get some water?" Kai's voice was beginning to croak, his throat felt so dry he could barley swallow.

Ray complied, and with Max and Tyson helping him to sit up he managed to sip it slowly. They were surprised that he didn't refuse their help. But Kai was too thirsty to be stubborn right now.

He settled down wearily, to rest back on the soft bed.

"What happened?" Kai questioned eyeing the wires connected to him with disgust. They reminded him of something.

"Well basically we called the police, who came. Then we went back in and found you." Ray knew he'd left out loads of details, but the short version was easiest to tell.

"Rage was there?" He had to be sure if it had been real. It could have just been his dream again.

"Yes, so you do remember."

"Vaguely" He remembered banging, darkness. Then Rage's voice. There was more, but they were just images that would sort themselves out when he wasn't feeling so groggy.

Kai grimaced at the continuous bleeping of the heart monitor, it was so annoying. Finally he had had enough and in a rage pulled all the wires off him. Blood trickled from his arm where the IV lead had been.

Now it was even worse, the machine let out a continuous 'bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep' noise that hurt his ears. He glared angrily at it, why couldn't someone just turn it off already. It wasn't like he needed it to tell if he was going to die anytime soon. Not unless someone walked into this room with a gun or something along those lines.

Then a doctor raced into the room. And he was carrying something far worse than a gun.


	15. Everyone's afraid of something

"Its o.k Tom" Max said switching off the machine.

"Kai just woke up, and he, erm…. Decided he didn't like the heart monitor much." Max looked sheepish, as he usually did when covering for someone.

"Understatement of the year" Hilary mumbled, secretively shocked at the ferocity Kai had used when pulling off the wires.

"No harm done I'm sure, hello Kai my name is Tom. Now I'm just going to give you a little medication to help with the pain."

Kai didn't respond, his face had turned deathly pale and he was shaking. He didn't hear anything the others were saying, he only had eyes for the needle gleaming in the doctor's hands.

Flashback 

"Time for your treatment Kai" Boris advanced, a needle in his hand.

A seven-year-old Kai tugged hopelessly at his restraints. He knew what was going to happen and he shuddered.

"Come on Kai, we know what happens, you fight against it but in the end the result is always the same."

With that the needle with it's odd looking liquid was jabbed into his arm.

End flashback 

"Kai?" Tom said advancing with concern on his face.

Kai backed away; his heart beat loudly in his chest. He scrambled out of the bed, all tiredness gone. He was wide-awake as he stumbled on a broken leg. He needed to escape that needle.

He shrank away from the hands trying to help him, and grabbed onto the windowsill.

His hands were heavily bandaged and half healed, so it caused only a small amount of pain as he beat on the glass as if death itself were hot on his heels.

He struggled with the locked handle, they were gaining on him. He had to get away.

He faced them, seeing only the needle coming closer and closer. He backed up as far as he could; his eyes were gleaming with fear.

For all the world like a cornered wild animal. He charged suddenly through them, and through the doorway. Only to be tackled to the floor by none other than Rage.

"Are you sure you gotta do that?" she asked as the doctor approached with a needle.

"Yes," said Tom sadly "It's a sedative, he needs calming down."

"Sorry Kai" Rage whispered to the pinned down boy. Then she slowly wrenched his arm away from him, showing that she was stronger than she looked. It took a great deal of strength to do that even with Kai being in the state he was. Until Tom could and did empty the contents of the needle into Kai's arm.

Rage carefully released her grip on him. Standing by just in case.

Finally he seemed relaxed enough and was carried back to his bed.

"What just happened?" Tyson asked, voicing the question on everyone's lips.

"Its seems your friend has a extreme phobia to needles. I've personally never seen a case this severe." Tom said quietly, Kai had just fallen asleep again.

Tom left the room without explaining further. They needed to process this information.

"So Kai's afraid of something, wow" Tyson sounded genuinely surprised.

"Where do you think you're going Rage?" Ray said spotting her about to make a quick getaway.

Rage paused, one foot in the hallway and turned around. Blushing because she had been caught.

"You've got some serious explaining to do."

"Yeah, just where do you keep disappearing to anyways?" Tyson added.

"I……….like going for walks?" Rage ventured lamely, knowing she was caught out.

"Tell you what Rage, we'll make you a deal. You don't have to answer that if…."

"She doesn't?" asked Tyson blankly.

"If" continued Max "you tell us all you know about Kai."

"We know something bad happened to him, but he won't tell us," explained Ray. "We just want to help him."

Rage sighed recognising the stubborn bonds of friendship. She wanted to help, but doubted that she could tell much.

"He entered the abbey at around the same age as I did, so about four or five. I have the feeling that what you need to know happened before that. He was so haunted back then, from the moment he arrived. According to my sources anyway, since I'm a year younger than him I wasn't there until a year after his arrival."

"I didn't see him much and we never really spoke, the abbey was never a very social place if you get my meaning. It was worse for him there than anyone else. We all saw the marks he got and he was pushed harder than any of us. I saw the room where they used to take him once when I had got lost. There was a chair with straps on it, and on a table nearby was a tray with needles and knives on it."

She forced herself to continue.

"They had blood on them, I never went back there. Kai was sick a lot from training. That's why they said that he needed harsher training than us. Those not stupid suspected of course, but that brought him no pity. A lot of the others suffered 'harsh' treatment when they fell behind in training. They hated Kai because it was his grandfather who owned the place. Who ordered the treatment."

"I beat him when I was eight, and then a year later when my punishment had just ended. It happened."

"What happened?" Tyson demanded, not willing to wait. Rage snapped out of her spaced out mood to send him a death glare that would have rivalled one of Kai's.

"As far as I can tell, he got a hold of black dranzer and used it. Since he was only ten at the time, he couldn't control its power. It destroyed half the abbey; it was incredibly lucky that no one died. Kai was trapped under the rubble for so long, that finally Boris had to rely on the emergency services to get him out."

"I'm getting this from rumours mostly, but what I gather that happened was. Mr Dickenson headed an inquiry into the incident, he started to keep such a close eye on Kai that they couldn't return him to the abbey. So Volitaire took him to Japan, it's also rumoured that his memory was lost from an injury caused when the abbey collapsed. I didn't see him again until I came here. That's all that I can tell you. Can I go now?"

"Wait" Hilary said suddenly "Just one more question."

Rage sighed again annoyed; she was late enough as it was.

"How did you find Kai, and how did you know what state he was in even before you saw him?"

Rage rolled her eyes and decided to tell all. It might shut them up for a while.

"I have a bond with my bitbeast that runs deeper than yours. She and I share emotions and thoughts. She is a fire wolf and so I possess the increased hearing and senses of a wolf. To answer your question I used these to find Kai. He smelt of blood, too deeply to be of a minor wound. I also have some abilities with fire, but they are merely things like resistance to heat so aren't very useful. She has also gained some abilities from me, such as independence. She has her own mind, even if she were somehow separated from me, no one else would be able to use her."

She looked around at the stunned faces and smiled.

"Now I'm finished," she declared walking out from the room.

As soon as she stepped out of the hospital she started running. She had wasted too much time, what if she didn't make it?

She shook her head, her breathing ragged. She pushed herself harder, she would make it, she had to. People looked shocked as she raced down the street, that didn't matter. All that mattered was getting there and soon. She hoped she wasn't too late.

* * *

"Your late" the mysterious man said, his voice was deep and commanding. He was in his forties; his dark brown hair was touched with grey. He was well built and well dressed in a dark suit that made it hard to tell whether he was a labourer or a gentleman. With a blue flannel shirt absent of a tie, he could have passed for either. His cold grey eyes glared at her impatiently as she caught her breath.

"Hello Bathos" she smiled politely, something in the way he moved reminded her of a predator stalking its prey.

His mouth split into a sudden grin. The grinning of an insane lunatic. A very cunning and dangerous one.

"And how is our friend Kai getting along?"

* * *

Hmmmm, soooo wat do ya think?

Next chapter might be harder to do, but i'll get around to it. Next chapter will be posted within a week I estimate, probuly less than a week. Anyhow, read and review please. I love getting reviews, and the more reviews i get the sooner the next chapter will be up. They tend to make me work at this more for some reason. They're a lot of help.


	16. Uneventful chapter

Kai lay on his bed staring at the ceiling, he was so bored.

He'd been in this hospital for a week now, although it felt like much longer.

He would have escaped by now if the police hadn't decided to place him under tight security. It was supposed to be for making sure no one could get in. But it also meant that he couldn't get out.

He checked the time again, 2:15pm.

The bladebreakers had said they'd come by to pick him up this afternoon. After a great amount of arguing on Kai's part with the hospital. They had very reluctantly agreed that he could leave this afternoon.

Kai had dressed into his usual outfit, complete with his spare scarf. He'd been waiting for hours; he'd also discovered that he wasn't as patient as he had thought he was.

He idly tugged at the restraints that were holding him to the hospital bed. After his third escape attempt that day had nearly succeeded, the team hired to protect him had decided on this. Of course, they'd had to dig around for stronger restraints after he had managed to escape from the first pair a couple of hours ago.

He yawned and turned his attention to the ceiling once again. There were 38 tiles; he'd counted them a numerous amount of times.

He wondered if Rage would be there when he got back. Not that he really cared, he told himself. He hadn't seen her since the needle incident. They'd given him pills for the pain instead now. He would expertly pretend to swallow them, and then dispose of them down the sink afterwards.

He hated all kinds of drugs, whether needle or pill. Pain relief just wasn't necessary in this case; he could cope with the pain. He'd had worse.

He'd driven a nurse to a screaming fit in his refusal to eat. He insisted on drinking only water from this place. The clearness and bland taste of the liquid make it near impossible to drug without him being able to detect the drug.

His team had been shocked at his eating habits; he guessed they hadn't noticed how little he ate before.

He'd have some dry toast in the morning, that was hard to drug as well. Then the odds are that he wouldn't eat again until the next day.

He had eaten more when living with the bladebreakers. Not much more, but a bit. He'd trusted their food to be drug free.

They didn't realise how much trust he put in them.

He flexed his hands experimentally, enjoying how easy it was to move them now they weren't covered with bandages.

They'd fully healed a couple of days ago, the hospital had been stunned at the rapidly of his healing. He'd always been like that, quick to heal. They'd been worried about infection with his back, but he didn't get infection. He never had, never got sick either. It was just the way he'd always been.

His leg was pretty much healed as well, but he hadn't been allowed to remove the bandages that splinted it.

His feet were healed, along with the wounds on his hands and face.

It was only his back that bothered him now. But that was well on its way to being healed as well.

He checked the clock again, 2:22.

Damn it, he wanted to go now. What was taking them so long?

He turned his head towards the door. Nothing, just the stupid guards.

Kai sighed and faced the ceiling again. His mind drifted back to Rage.

Why was he thinking of he so much?

Because of what Ray had said about her.

Flashback 

"I've got something I need to tell you Kai. Its about Rage."

It had been a few days ago, early enough in the morning that Max and Tyson were still asleep. Ray had come by himself.

Kai hadn't answered and after a decent pause, Ray continued.

"You know she keeps disappearing, well I followed her one time."

'Did you ever do that to me when I disappeared?' Kai wondered in his silence.

"Kai, she's spying on us. She reported to this guy called Bathos. He's the same guy we saw whipping you when we were captured."

Kai had felt disappointed, but for some reason not surprised. No emotions appeared on his face however.

"He's her step-father." Kai said simply.

"How do you know that?" Ray asked surprised.

"She went to the abbey same time as me, remember?"

"Oh, …. Yeah" There was an awkward silence on Ray's part as Kai processed this information.

"Are you sure that she's a traitor?"

"Yes" Ray answered sadly "I heard some of what they said, Bathos is working for Volitaire and Rage is working for Bathos. I've told the others already."

"Speaking of the others, you better go back and wake them up. Tyson's been slacking on his training lately and the team needs to stay in shape to keep up with the competition."

"Alright Kai, I'll see you later." The neko-jin paused with a hand on the door handle.

"Kai, you're still having the nightmares aren't you?"

Silence

"If ever you need to talk, I'm here for you. You know that, right?"

"Bye Ray" was the stern reply.

The raven-haired teen sighed and walked out the door.

End Flashback 

Ray had been right about the nightmares, they hadn't stopped.

In fact they were getting worse.

Shadows darkened his eyes from lack of sleep. He'd stayed awake all last night. It was childish he knew, but he was afraid to close his eyes.

Every time he did he was haunted by images of his past. Things he'd remembered before, and things he hadn't until he saw them in his dreams.

They were engulfing him with the pain of his time spent at the abbey. Even in the daytime now he would get caught up in a memory that he would rather not remember.

He'd have to tell the team soon, he guessed. He wasn't looking forward to that, but Ray was already suspecting something. Same with the rest of the team, although they were trying hard not to mention it.

A sound made him focus on the door again. There were voices, and Kai could vaguely see what might be Tyson's hat through the small window set in the door.

"I'm afraid we had to restrain him. He became severely agitated with the wait."

Kai's eyes narrowed momentally at the guard's choice of words.

"I told you we should have got here earlier."

"Tyson!" Max reprimanded, "If you hadn't slept in we would have."

Then the door opened and the teens fell silent as they filed into the room.

They were all there, even Hilary and Kenny.

"Err…hi Kai" Ray said, still processing the fact that their stubborn leader was strapped down. The weird thing was that Kai seemed completely calm about it. Like he was used to being in that position.

"Took you long enough" Kai scowled.

"Yeah sorry about that, Ty…" Ray was cut off by Kai's next words.

"So, am I allowed to leave now?"

"Um, yeah…sure" Max started "I'll just get one of them grown ups to unstrap you shall I?"

"Don't bother" Kai's answer made Max pause and the rest to stare at him curiously.

Kai ignored them and concentrated on his hands.

His right hand made a movement so swift that their eyes couldn't follow it. Then it was free, the strap fell to the floor useless.

He quickly undid the rest of the buckles easierly, then with all his limbs free he sat calmly on the bed.

"Kai, if you could do that all along. Then how come you didn't before?" Hilary asked as Kai took Dranzer out of a drawer and slipped her into his pocket.

"I did," he said as he used the side of the bed to help him stand on the floor.

"Only those idiots tied me down again. So I figured I'd stay put and give them a rest." Kai stood carefully on his own two feet. It would have been stupid if Volitaire had shown up and the guards were tired out from chasing him around.

Kai let out a growl of irritation from deep in his throat as a doctor walked into the room. He was pushing a wheelchair.

"Hi Tom" Max said cheerily to the doctor. The others smiled in greeting, ignoring Kai's hostile attitude.

"Hi" Tom smiled in return.

"Now Kai, that leg is still very fragile so I don't want you to put much strain on it o.k."

He presented the wheelchair as if it were a great gift.

"I would have got you some crutches instead, but I feel that they might put too much pressure on your back. So you're going to have to be wheelchair bound for a while I'm afraid."

Kai growled again, then began walking in steady strides toward the doctor. He tried to walk in his usual intimidating way, but couldn't disguise the limp in his step.

Tom unconsciously took a step back in response to Kai's glare.

"I don't need a wheelchair" Kai snarled at the older man.

Tom swallowed and reminded himself that he was the adult in this situation.

"If you get in the wheelchair, you get to leave. If not then you'll have to stay in the hospital."

Kai literally shook with anger; the lack of sleep and the haunting of his dreams were getting to him. Tyson feared that he might explode.

"Fine" Kai hissed through clenched teeth.

He sat roughly down in the chair and disappeared into his own thoughts.

The others looked at each other oddly, wondering at Kai's behaviour.

Ray looked worried as he wheeled Kai out of the hospital with the others tailing behind.

The bus ride was uneventful, and long. The police had booked them into a hotel somewhere, which was where they were heading. Since it had not been advisable for them to return to the dojo.

Throughout the trip Ray kept on glancing as Kai, he was worried about their team captain. He looked so tired and distant.

He was sitting at the back, staring out of the window. Ray soon gave up his attempts to talk to him; Kai didn't even acknowledge his presence.

Kai stared out of the window, if he concentrated on what was out there maybe he could hold sleep at bay for a little longer.

His leg ached relentlessly and his back burned, he was exhausted.

Despite his best efforts, his heavy eyelids could not remain open. His head dropped slowly, and sleep once again drew him back into his much hated past.

* * *

Thank you for the reviews, I love reviews. Please review some more, please. #puppy dog eyes# 


	17. Nightmares

A seven year old boy was strapped tightly to a table. The table was set at an angle so that the boy's head was facing the ceiling and his feet were facing the floor. There were a total of ten straps holding him down. One around each ankle, one on each leg, one around each wrist, one around each arm. There was a huge strap around his chest and the last one circled his neck making him hesitate before he swallowed.

He couldn't remove them; he'd tried when he'd first been placed on the table. But it had been useless, so he just lay there waiting what would happen next. His expression gave away none of the emotions whirling around in his head. His chest was bare, showing off his already well-defended muscles.

A Bunsen was lit on a desk nearby; he stared into its fiery depths until a presence in the room caused his gaze to snap up to the approaching figure. It was Bathos Schild, he knew him and he knew what a meeting with him meant. Fear sparkled through the emotionless mask he used to protect himself.

"Now Kai, Boris tells me that you drew in a match on purpose. That you didn't even try to win. Is this true?" The man placed the tray he was carrying on the desk.

Kai's eyes widened as they fixed on the various knives and needles arranged on the tray.

"…no… I tried to win, but Tala's strong," he stammered, his mask cracking as more fear shone through. He was lying, but he felt an odd loyalty to the red headed boy. Not a friendship exactly, those weren't allowed in the abbey. But as close to a friendship as he could manage without Boris noticing.

"Don't lie to me Kai" Bathos warned as he selected a sharp looking knife off of the tray and began to heat it on the Bunsen flame.

"But" he started, then stopped just as suddenly as the adult matched the small boy's glare with his own.

"Boris said that whichever one who lost the battle would be punished, so…" Kai trailed off as Bathos approached with a red hot knife in his hand.

"So you decided to try and cheat the rules did you?" Bathos sighed like a disapproving parent.

Kai hung his head knowing that he'd done wrong, that he would be punished for it. He tensed his muscles for what was to come.

The knife had dulled in colour but he knew it still held great heat.

"Which hand do you use to pull the rip cord?"

"My right" was Kai's automatic response.

Bathos nodded to himself and moved the blade closer to Kai's exposed chest.

Kai bit back a yelp of pain as the flat of the blade touched his skin. There was a small hissing sound as an angry burn appeared on his rib cage. His whole body spasmed, trying uselessly to escape from the pain.

"You see Kai, the trick is" Bathos intoned as he drew back the knife to place it against another spot of unharmed skin on his chest.

"to get the blade to exactly the right temperature" he continued to place the blade again and again on unburned skin. To stare at each mark in turn, looking for something.

"If the blade is too hot, then the tissue will burn beyond repair and the wound will most likely scar. However if the blade is too cool, then there is a greater risk of severe bleeding or perhaps infection."

Kai had lost count of the amount of times he had been burned; the worst thing was that he didn't think that the torture had even really started yet.

"The trick is to get it just right, ah there." Bathos grinned at the finished result.

"You won't want to pull that trick again after this."

Bathos placed the tip of the knife over Kai's left arm, humming to himself as he found the right spot. Then he began to push, forcing the smoking blade into the boy's restrained arm.

The pain was unbearable, he opened his mouth to scream but no sound came out. So he coughed instead, choking against the tough material wrapping his throat. He turned his head away.

Bathos tutted and forced Kai to look at the knife, using his free arm to move the child's head. Kai stared at the site, afraid what might happen is he looked away again.

Finally it was over and Kai was surprised to feel a liquid flow down his cheeks. That was odd, he never cried. Crying is an emotion and emotions are weak, he'd had that beat into him so many times that he cursed his body for betraying him.

"Hush" Bathos whispered, placing the blood stained knife back on the tray. He wiped the tears from the child's face in an almost tender way.

"Boris said that if you cried then I would have to do it again and give you another hole in your arm."

The slate haired child ceased crying immediately, his face stricken with pure fear.

Bathos chuckled at Kai's expression.

"That's good, you stop crying and Boris need never know you showed weakness, just promise you won't do it again?"

"I promise" came the weak reply.

"Good boy."

Bathos ruffled the boy's hair playfully and unstrapped him.

"Now you can rest for the rest of today, but you must attend training in the morning."

Kai stumbled from the room. His chest was burning and his arm was showing that it could be numb and hurt like hell at the same time.

"Tala you can come in now!" he heard Bathos yell.

Kai ignored the red-head as they passed each other, his mind was on his own pain.

-----------------------------------------------

Ray yawned as the bus finally stopped outside of a hotel. He dragged himself to his feet and unfolded Kai's wheelchair. He'd kept the chair close by him, as he hadn't been quite sure what exactually Kai would do to the chair if left alone with it. Being stuck in a wheelchair wasn't Kai's idea of a good time, and the blader didn't bother to hide the hate he felt for the chair.

"Kai?" Ray asked curiously as he neared the team captain who had isolated himself from the others by sitting right at the back. The blader had curled himself up close to the window and appeared to be sleeping.

Ray smiled softly; he knew how exhausted Kai had been. His smile turned into a frown as he saw Kai's face.

His features were racked with pain and fright. Sweat trickled down the boy's forehead, as he turned suddenly trying to escape from something that only he himself could see. His breathing was laboured, and if he hadn't of belted himself to the seat he would have had tossed and turned his way on to the floor by now.

"Oh man, Kai" Tyson said as shocked as Ray. Only Max, who had seen Kai in this state before wasn't surprised. 'Although' he thought quietly to himself as he leaned over the back of his seat to get a better look. 'He looks a lot more frightened than he did before'.

"Kai?" Tyson tried again. He leaned down to try and shake his shivering friend out of the nightmare that had him trapped.

The effects were miraculous. As soon as Tyson's hand touched Kai's shoulder, the slate haired teen sprung up to a sitting position. Kai's eyes were still glazed and unfocused when his fist launched itself into Tyson's face.

After a minute Kai's muscles untensed and his breathing slowed down to normal.

The fifteen year old cast his sleepy eyes over the shocked group, to stop and stare in a half confused way at Tyson. Who was at that moment sprawled dazed on the floor, rubbing at his already red and swelling cheek.

"Tyson" Kai growled, his voice traced with exhaustion.

"What the hell are you doing on the floor?"

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So what do you think? I know that most of this chapter is taken up with a dream, but Bathos is just weird.

Anyhow, read and review. Please?

I'll update soon, sooner if i get a lot of reviews.


	18. The hotel

The hotel room was large, more like an apartment than anything else. There was a lounge room in which was to Tyson's great delight a wide screen TV with play station and DVD player. This doubled up as a dining room that also led out onto a balcony.

As well as this there was also a small kitchen stocked with all the basics. A bathroom, and two bedrooms. One was small and contained two beds, while the other was bigger and contained five beds.

"Cool!" Max yelled running from room to room, Tyson followed close behind him his previous injury forgotten for the time being at least.

"He's been at the sugar again." Ray commented to himself. He was the only one not exploring, with the exception of Kai of course. Ray looked down at the slate haired teen and his heart turned over with worry.

Ray wasn't stupid; he knew that something was eating away at their team captain. It had something to do with the nightmares, only whenever Ray had tried to bring up the subject Kai had shown quite firmly that he didn't want to talk about it.

Kai sat in the wheelchair, his shoulders slumped with exhaustion. It seemed that whenever he fell asleep now a memory would come back to haunt him. Then Kai would wake up even more tired than before he had fallen asleep. His head fell slowly to his chest, then sprang up again as he realised that he was about to fall asleep if he didn't watch out.

"You are allowed to go to sleep you know" came an amused voice to his right.

Kai turned his head to glare at Ray's golden eyes.

"I'm not tired" he sighed, his words immediately being proven wrong as his head dipped forward again. His head sprang up at the sound of Ray's laughter.

"O.K" he admitted with a small smile. "Maybe a little tired, but….I'm not going to sleep". The last part was said with such determination that Ray knew it would be pointless to argue.

Kai tensed as Ray patted him on the shoulder, still chuckling. Luckily the neko-jin didn't notice as he made his way to the kitchen.

"I'll make you some coffee" he called back over his shoulder.

Ten minutes later and Kai was sipping his black coffee, while the others finally returned from their explorations of the apartment.

"There's one thing I don't get" Tyson said confused.

Kai raised an eyebrow 'only one thing?' he thought to himself.

Tyson continued, unaware of Kai's silent criticisms to Tyson's intelligence.

"There's two beds in one room and five in the other, that makes seven but there's only six of us."

A figure stepped out from the balcony suddenly. "Well done Tyson, you can count" came the dry sarcastic voice. Rage stepped up to the staring teens, a fixed smirk held on her face.

"I'm the seventh" she said simply.

"What!" Ray growled stepping forward to face Rage. "I told you to stay away Rage."

"Well," Rage said apathily examining her fingernails as if they interested her more than this conversation.

"The police weren't inclined to agree with you, they seem to think that I need as much protection as you."

She raised her head to smile with false cheerfulness at Hilary. "So it looks like we'll be room mates, isn't that great?"

Hilary was saved from having to answer as Ray butted in again, his normally peaceful eyes blazing with anger.

"This is ridiculous, you're a spy for Volitaire for gods sake."

"That insane old man!" she was finally paying attention to the conversation, her voice betraying a slight note of anger.

"Well at least, you're a spy for Bathos who is working for Volitaire". Ray snarled his hands transforming into fists. "So how can you be trusted!" Ray worked hard to protect his team, and she was a threat. For all they knew, Rage could have set them up to get captured at the very beginning. Which meant that she was responsible for Kai's pain.

"You can't link those two, you can't prove that Bathos is working for Volitaire. You have no proof." She said simply, struggling to keep her voice calm. Of course she herself knew the truth, but that didn't mean that she was able to accept it.

"Bathos worked at the abbey."

At the sound of this new voice to the argument, everyone turned around to look at the source.

Kai stood shakily a fair distance from the wheelchair. He walked toward Rage, the others too shocked to stop him. His tiredness enhanced the limp when he stood on his leg, even though he fought to hide it.

His face was a mask on which no emotions were shown. His eyes fixed on hers and although she tried to return the gaze, she turned away involuntarily.

"Rage" he said placing a hand on her shoulder to get her attention. She flinched, but he did not remove his hand. She had to listen, to see reason. Her muscles tensed under his fingers.

She was like him, he realised. She had been hurt by those who were supposed to care for her. Had been abused, forgotten, neglected, tortured, hurt.

**Flash Back**

A six-year-old Kai huddled in his cell. He tried to stop the forbidden tears running down his cheeks. If they found out that he had cried they would only hurt him again. Blood trickled from his many wounds, but he ignored them. He was used to them, to hurting like this. But it still wasn't fair.

He raised his head at a noise outside his cell. He wiped away his tears, hoping that it wasn't anyone to see him. The noise was small, more like shuffles than footsteps.

Kai got up and ignoring the pain it caused, he walked over to the door. His room mate Tala got up from the shadows in which he had been sitting and stood next to Kai.

Both tried to look through the small keyhole that was their only view of the outside hallway. The sight made both their eyes widen slightly in surprise.

A small girl who could have only been around five years old stumbled down the hallway. Her long black hair clung to her sweat and blood covered face. Her back was torn and bloody, and her pain stricken blue green eyes stared vacantly ahead.

"Who is she?" Kai wondered out loud. A girl was rare in the abbey, and this one appeared to be trained much like Kai was. That was odd; he'd thought that only he had been treated that badly.

"Its best not to know" Tala answered, before returning to sit in the shadows again.

Kai watched until the girl disappeared from sight, then he finally sat down again. Wondering what she had done to be treated like that.

**End Flash Back**

"What Bathos did was wrong" Kai said trying to get her to look at him. She did, her eyes curious as to what he was saying.

"Its not right for him to hurt you. I don't know how you manage to be within a hundred metres of that creep, let alone work for him."

"I did bad" she mumbled, her eyes spoke of pain and sorrow. "I'll do better next time." Her eyes turned to the floor; it was her own fault as to the way she was treated. If she didn't keep on doing things wrong then she wouldn't be hurt.

"No" Kai said firmly, taking hold of her shoulders to try and shake some sense into her. "You did not do wrong, it was his fault. Why is that so hard for you to understand?"

At this her eyes snapped up to glare into Kai's catching him off guard.

"I would have thought that you of all people would understand, Kai," she growled, her eyes flashing with anger.

"Now leave me alone!" she yelled pushing him away from her. His injured leg barley caught his weight as he stumbled backwards. She stormed to the bedroom she was supposed to share with Hilary and slammed the door hard behind her.

"What was all that about Kai?" Tyson demanded as Ray went to call Alice Thompson.

Kai refused to answer and instead rested in an armchair. By the time Ray got back from the phone everyone had given up on trying to get an answer out of Kai.

"Its no use" Ray sighed. "Its like no one even cares that Rage is a spy, they only see her as a fourteen year old girl who needs protecting from the evil guys. Except since she's already working for the evil guys I personally don't think that she'll have much of a problem."

"I know!" Max said suddenly, everyone turned to see what he had to say. "Lets watch a movie!"

"And lets get pizza!" agreed Tyson.

The others agreed a little more reluctantly and soon they were all sitting around the T.V eating pizza. Even Kai was sitting there, though he refused to eat. Plus the only reason that he was watching the movie was because he didn't want to go to sleep yet. And he didn't want to admit that he was too exhausted to get up from the armchair to leave the room.

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I'm sorry about not updating sooner. I've just been a bit swamped with school work resently. Why the teachers can't wait until after the christmas hols to sort out course work is behond me.

Anyhow, plz review.


	19. No more

When the movie finally ended the tired teenagers shuffled off to their rooms. Hilary disappeared rather reluctantly into hers and Rage's room. Kenny went into the room the boys were going to share.

Ray was the one to notice that Kai had fallen asleep in the chair. Max and Tyson stood sleepily watching as Ray cautiously approached the unconscious boy. Remembering what had happened to Tyson, Ray tried to wake him by saying his name. It gained no reaction from Kai, so Ray slowly reached out to touch his shoulder.

Ray had readied himself for Kai's reaction but was caught unawares. Instead of hitting Ray, Kai turned over in his sleep with a near inaudible whimper of fear rising from his throat. With his back now facing Ray, the slate haired teen drew his knees protectively to his chest before relaxing again.

"I wish he'd just tell us what's wrong," Tyson whispered sadly.

"Do you think it's his past again, like last time?" Max asked quietly not removing his eyes from his sleeping captain.

"I think it's always been his past. He just hasn't been able to tell us, but he will do soon." Ray stated, while lifting Kai into his arms. 'Geez he's light' he thought, worried.

"What makes you say that?" Max asked, confused. All were silent for a moment as they watched the sleeping Kai shiver against Ray's chest, as if he were subconsciously afraid of being so near to someone. When Kai finally relaxed again, it was Tyson who answered Max's question.

"Because we'll make him."

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* * *

The child's breath's came out in short painful gasps as he forced himself to examine the object in his hand. The knife glinted coldly, the blood that covered it dripped down the handle to colour his hand in the still warm liquid.

His small fist shook as it held tightly onto the weapon. He shouldn't be acting like this, he had seen death before. This was pitiful, he was pitiful. In his six years of life he had seen worse things than this. Much worse things, but he had never caused them. He had never purposely killed anything before.

His hands now matched the colour of his fiery eyes. It wasn't the first blood on his hands. The six year old stood in the pitch black of the cell. Just him, the corpse, the blood and the men who had made him do it.

He hadn't wanted to do it, but he'd had no choice. The dream was made hazy by the fury contained in the memory.

He had killed to save a life the child convinced himself as he handed the bloody knife back to the one he called grandfather. The dream shifted. A spray of blood covered him, marking him for the coward he really was. He had caused another death, another death because of him.

He was still in that dark cell, but the anger in him had died. The hope in him was dead. He slumped to his knees as Voitaire mentioned one last thing before shutting him in the cell.

"You belong to me Kai. Never forget that, you disobey one of my orders again and you know how easy it is for me to kill you."

With that Kai was left alone. Alone in the dark with two corpses the small child barely seemed aware of anything. His eyes flashed with emotion that was threatening to burst out of him. He drew his knees to his chest, rocking back and forth slowly. Finally he could not contain it anymore so he did the one thing that he knew relieved the pain.

He screamed. It was a sound of complete anguish, despair, loss, pain, anger and grief. To hear such a thing from a child's voice was the most heart retching sound imaginable. Kai did not know how long this lasted. But finally when he fell silent and raised his head. His eyes held nothing in them, no childish spark, no emotion and no hope. He had hidden himself from the world and he had been broken.

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* * *

As soon as the screaming rang out in the boy's bedroom, Ray's amber eyes flared open. He was met with complete confusion.

When Tyson awoke to the heart-stopping screaming. His reaction was to scream himself, since his sleep had been rather abruptly interrupted. His screams were cut off suddenly as in his effort to jump out of bed; he tripped over the tangled covers and landed head first on the floor.

"Why's everyone screaming?" Max yawned sleepily rubbing his eyes.

It was about then that they noticed that it was Kai who had been screaming. As the last notes of the desperate cry faded in the room. Everyone's attention turned to their tortured captain, including Hilary's who had just raced into the room to see what was wrong.

Ray moved closer to Kai, the others creeping cautiously behind him. The teen in question was sat up in his bed, with his knees hugged to his chest. He hadn't yet noticed the others. His grey bangs hung low over his eyes, concealing his face in shadow. Ray wasn't even sure if he was awake yet, he seemed so still.

"Kai?" Ray tried; there was no reaction even though Ray was crouching right by Kai's bed.

"Why does everyone have to die?" Kai's voice was so distant and quiet, that if they hadn't been so close they wouldn't have heard. He seemed so sad that on an impulse Ray reached out to comfort him.

As soon as Ray touched his arm, Kai's head jerked up with a shocked and almost scared look on his face. It was only Ray's superior reaction time that enabled him to evade the punch. Tyson who was positioned right behind Ray wasn't so lucky. He landed across the room with a thump.

Kai blinked a few times in a dazed fashion before he seemed to see them. When he did, he shot backwards in the bed till his head hit the wall. His expression said quite clearly 'What the hell?' as he looked at them with a mixture of anger and fear that might have just been left over from the dream.

"Kai you had another nightmare" Max explained, casting a glance at the moaning Tyson before deciding that he didn't need his attention as much as Kai might.

There was an awkward silence, as no one seemed to be able to think of something to say.

Finally Kai, who was feeling rather freaked out by being surrounded like this, broke the silence.

"I need some coffee," he murmured before attempting to push his way out of the group.

"Kai please, we can't help you if you don't tell us what's bothering you" Ray exclaimed.

Kai looked back at the Chinese blader for a moment. His expression seemed troubled, as if he was considering on accepting the offer. Then he forced himself to walk out of the room.

After about five minutes of sitting in silence, another figure entered the doorway. Rage stood there, her gaze fixed on Ray. The neko-jin's amber eyes narrowed, he had made it quite obvious that he didn't like her.

"Ray, if you want to talk to Kai now is the time. But only you must go, don't crowd him yet o.k? I know you don't like me but you should take my advice if you don't want him to stay in this boring depression all the time. That'd be my advice." Her eyes were focused on him all throughout this little speech. The truth behind her words was shown clearly in her blue green eyes.

With that she left to go back to her room. Leaving a stunned crowd behind her.

"She's weird that one" Hilary spoke up, "did you know that she even refuses to sleep on a bed, she uses the floor for gods sake. What's up with that?"

"She may be 'weird' as you say, but I do think that she may just be right." Kenny added.

"Kenny's right" Ray confirmed walked to the door. With a small wave over his shoulder he made his way to the kitchen to where Kai was. Behind him the others got back to their interrupted sleep, it was four in the morning after all.

'Time for a heart to heart with our dear captain' Ray thought as he pushed open the door to the kitchen. Kai was sitting at the table nursing a cup of steaming coffee. Ray had tried this before, but he felt a new confidence as he sat down in the chair by Kai.

For a moment no one spoke as Kai sat with his head lowered over his coffee and his elbows leaning heavily on the table.

"Ray" Kai said suddenly without moving from his position. His voice shook as he continued, finally accepting that this was not something that he could handle on his own.

"Ray, It's eating away at me and I….I….need to talk" Kai closed his eyes, concentrating on forcing the words out. This was unbelievably hard for him to do; he'd never thought that he would ever ask for help from anyone. It just wasn't his way; he would handle everything himself even if it caused himself discomfort.

But this, this was different and he couldn't cope with it anymore. It felt like his head was on fire with all the different memories and emotions that he had fought to hide. Every time a new memory came, it would explode it his head with all the different emotions and most likely blood or pain that the memory held.

Ray nodded in an understanding way.

"I'm here to listen."

* * *

I had a good christmas. The reason it took so long to update was because of christmas, and lack of inspiration. Also because of the fact that fanfiction wouldn't let me update.

#shakes fist# stupid non updating thing. Anyhow, please read and review.


	20. The past

"Ray" Kai said suddenly without moving from his position. His voice shook as he continued, finally accepting that this was not something that he could handle on his own.

"Ray, It's eating away at me and I….I….need to talk" Kai closed his eyes, concentrating on forcing the words out. This was unbelievably hard for him to do; he'd never thought that he would ever ask for help from anyone. It just wasn't his way; he would handle everything himself even if it caused himself discomfort.

But this, this was different and he couldn't cope with it anymore. It felt like his head was on fire with all the different memories and emotions that he had fought to hide. Every time a new memory came, it would explode it his head with all the different emotions and most likely blood or pain that the memory held.

Ray nodded in an understanding way.

"I'm here to listen."

------------------------------------

Kai gripped the sides of his mug tightly. His grey bangs hid his face from view, hiding any possible emotions that might cause him to seem more weak than necessary. He hesitated in continuing but a warm spot near his heart egged him on. It could only be Dranzer, that interfering bird. It always amused him how much his bitbeast cared for him.

"I've been having these dreams, only they're not dreams. They're memories, memories that I hadn't remembered until I dreamt them."

Ray looked confused, "I thought that you'd remembered you're past the last time we were in Russia." He said softly.

"So did I, or as much as I thought I could remember anyway." Kai shot a quick glance at Ray and was reassured at how calm and understanding he looked. He focused on the dark depths of his swirling coffee as he continued.

"My memory was patchy in areas, but I still figured that was alright. A blessing really considering the sorts of stuff that I did remember." Kai closed his eyes, determined to just concentrate on the words. That might make what he had to say easier. Although what Ray might think of him after he had heard from him still nagged at him.

'_He's your friend, he'll understand'_ insisted Dranzer.

The edges of Kai's mouth twitched into a halfhearted smile at that. The word friend still seemed foreign to him. The smile disappeared as Kai continued.

"Only this stuff, the things that I'm remembering now are even worse. And although my past is almost complete in my mind now, I have a feeling that what is to come next will be even worse than anything before." Kai paused again, not sure how to continue.

"So what was in that dream which you had just now?" Ray knew that this was a very rare time that Kai would want to talk about his past. So the more information he got in this crucial time the better.

"I was six, I was training at the abbey. They had been training me for a long time. I don't know how many months or years, but it felt like forever. A big part of the teaching was to make me emotionless. That way they figured that I would be rid of the weakness that emotion brings, plus easier to control." The last part was said in a bitter voice.

Flashback 

The slate haired child launched his blade into the dish again. His arm ached from pulling the ripcord so many times. His head rang as he watched his blade spin alone in the dish, every time he made a small mistake in his launch Boris would hit him and make him launch again. His entire body was sore from lack of sleep and the bruises that riddled his small frame.

He hated these solo training sessions. Boris's breath was hot on his back as the man waited for the child to make one small mistake that would enable him to hit him again. The child hid a shiver at the adult being so close to him. Kai was more afraid of Boris than anything else in the world. Although he forced himself not to show it, that would only lead to more punishment.

Maybe there was one other person who he feared as much as Boris. Kai knew something bad was going to happen as soon as he noticed his grandfather standing in the doorway.

"Boris, bring the boy over here" the child shivered in fear as Boris dragged him along by the arm. Dranzer was left still spinning in the dish.

End Flashback 

"I guess that they wanted to test me to see if I was completely void of emotions or not. Boris and Voltaire took me to one of the cells; they pushed me in one and stood in the doorway. They explained that this was a simple test, that if I passed then I could go to sleep. It was past midnight, and I had been training for about eighteen hours straight. I was exhausted, and I only noticed the sack in the corner after it started making noises. Then they gave me the knife…"

Flashback 

The child looked with confusion at the object in his hand. The knife felt reassuringly heavy in his small fist. He held it loosely, scared of the sharpness of the metal. He knew what damage a knife could do.

"This is very simple Kai" Voltaire said calmly "Just a quick test, now open the sack."

Kai nodded politely and pulled open the rough brown sack. Out poked a small black nose, sniffing at the air warily. Then came a light yellow head, and then finally the rest of the body as this small puppy looked curiously at its new surroundings. Inwardly the child became even more confused, he had not been out of the abbey for a very long time. So the word puppy was slow to form in his brain. He tilted his head slightly in curiosity at what this familiar looking creature was. The puppy tilted his head in the same fashion, gazing up at Kai with equal curiosity.

"Now kill it" Voltaire ordered, not noticing the exchange.

Kai nodded once again, his head spinning with tiredness. He knelt down on the floor, to make his job easier. He'd never killed anything before, but he figured that it couldn't be too hard. After all he'd seen it done before. He frowned in confusion at this thought. _Who? _He wondered, but like always that memory stayed just out of reach.

He positioned the knife over the puppy's heart, that would be the easiest way to kill it he decided. He reached his other hand out to hold the animal still while he did as his grandfather had ordered. To his surprise the golden puppy licked his shaking hand, making him falter.

The child stared at the nuzzling puppy as if seeing it for the first time. This was ridiculous; he had a knife headed to stab into the creature's heart. And yet when Kai looked into the animal's wide eyes he saw no hate there, only a child-like trust. A trust that Kai himself had lost long ago.

"Kai, be quick and kill it so that we can all get some sleep."

Kai didn't break his gaze with the puppy. This was so odd; this awkward creature was stirring up feelings of innocence within him. Suddenly he realised something that surprised him, he didn't want to kill this helpless animal. It wasn't so much that, than that it mattered to him what he wanted. He hadn't wanted a lot of what they put him through, but he hadn't had a choice. Until now.

Lowering the knife he said the one word that he knew would cause him a world of pain.

"No."

End Flashback 

"I was only six, and stupid enough to refuse. I mean, it was only a puppy, and maybe…maybe it would have been better if I had just obeyed Voltaire. They were mad of course, but I had the knife and I used it to keep them away from us. I knew that I couldn't keep them away forever, but since I knew what would happen if they got a hold of me. I was stubborn. They threatened me with all the punishments that they could think of, but it was nothing that I hadn't been through before. So I still refused to kill it, I was just a little kid and I wanted…I wanted to protect it as silly as that sounds. I wanted it to be my friend even though back then I wasn't sure what a friend was, then they brought him in…"

Flashback 

The child clutched the breathing bundle to his chest, holding the puppy close to make sure it remained safe. His eyes never left the men in front of him, he held the knife up threateningly. Tears burned at the corners of his eyes, but he would not let them fall. That would be weak, and he would not allow that even though he knew that he and the puppy were as good as dead anyway.

"I ask you to do one simple thing Kai." His grandfather was mad; but at least he was keeping his distance for now. Kai wished once again that he had not left Dranzer in the training room; he could really use her help about now. Even though he felt the presence of her near his heart, she was still too far away to help. He was on his own.

Yelling came from the corridor outside the cell. Then a man was pushed into the dimly lit room. Voltaire caught him swiftly in a firm hold and placed a gun to the man's head. The man looked to be only in his early twenties, to say that he was scared was an understatement. He wore a white lab coat that stood out against his otherwise black clothing. His short brown hair shone with sweat, and his dark eyes were wide with fear.

The young man seemed to still as he recognised the boy stood in front of him. Despite the muzzle of the gun pressing into his temple, the man's expression changed to one of pity instead of fear. He appeared genuinely worried for the child, most of all he seemed sad. Sad that he couldn't help the child.

Voltaire smiled evilly at being in control again. "You have a choice Kai" Voltaire growled, his finger tightening over the trigger to enhance his point.

End Flashback 

"His name was Marc, he worked at the abbey as a doctor there. He had been hired straight out of med school, so he hadn't known what he was getting into. Whenever a student needed medical care that they themselves couldn't take care of, like strapping broken bones or putting a dislocated shoulder back into place. They would be sent to Marc, and he would fix them enough so that they could attend training. I was there a lot when I was younger. He never really talked to me, but he always acted kind.

He was a good man, much too good to be in the abbey. Once he had found out about what went on in the abbey, he began to document. He'd take notes of my wounds and pictures as well. In the rare times that he did dare to speak to me, he'd record on an audiocassette him trying to get me to say what had happened. Sometimes I'd speak, and other times I wouldn't.

He was found that night when he was just planning to go to the police with the evidence he had collected. Marc was not a friend, but he was a good man with a wife and kids and he'd tried to help me for which I was grateful. I couldn't let him die like that, so I killed the puppy. I remember that its fur was a pale colour because of how the blood stood out against it…"

Flashback 

The child placed the dead puppy gently on the floor. He had been a fool to think that he could save it from its fate. At least it wouldn't have to suffer anymore, which defiantly could not be said for his own case. He stared at the gleaming liquid on the knife as it dripped down the handle to cover his already blood coated hands with more blood.

"That wasn't so hard was it Kai?"

The six year old shivered at his grandfather's voice. He'd just killed the first creature that had trusted him. No matter the dark tortures of the abbey, he was still only a six-year-old child. He had been shown a puppy and despite the impossibility of the situation he'd wanted to keep it, to have it as a friend. And now his grandfather had made him kill it, it wasn't fair.

"Now give me the knife Kai."

Kai looked one final time at the knife, wondering what he'd be able to see reflected in the metal if the blood wasn't in the way. If he'd be able to see all the emotions that were battling inside him betrayed on his face. Then with a feeling of deep regret he passed the weapon to Voltaire, slightly relieved that the adult had put the gun away. Although he still had Marc firmly held onto, his grandfather's grip was hard to break. Kai knew that from first hand experience, he felt odd that he had killed something. It didn't seem right that something could be alive one minute then so easily dead the next.

At least now Marc would be all right, that was what his grandfather had promised him. Marc wouldn't be killed if he would just kill the puppy, and he had done that. Kai might not be ok, but at least Marc would.

Kai grew uneasy at the smile on Voltaire's face as the man examined the knife. A cold feeling grew in his stomach as the man he called grandfather placed a knife to Marc's throat. Time seemed to slow down as Kai realised what was going to happen. He caught Marc's gaze and knew from the man's eyes that he knew what was happening as well.

A quick slash was all it took, and then Marc's throat was opened to spurt his precious life's blood across the room. Kai was covered in it, even though he didn't seem to notice this at first. He just stood still, numb as Voltaire allowed the dying man to slump to the floor. He barley heard the words his grandfather said as he left the cell.

"You belong to me Kai. Never forget that, you disobey one of my orders again and you know how easy it is for me to kill you."

It was true Kai realised as he collapsed to his knees, his legs unable to hold him up any longer. His grandfather could kill him any time that he wanted, and who would know? Who would even care?

Marc had cared and he had paid because of it.

The darkness smothered the child as he sat in the cold of the cell. He listened numbly to the last gurgling breaths of the man who had died because of him. His grandfather had broken his promise, it wasn't fair. The silence rung loud in his ears, everyone in the cell was dead apart from him. He only just felt dead.

It wasn't fair, it never would be.

**End Flashback**

"I guess that was the first day I really started to use the mask I used to hide my emotions. To hide myself as well…" Kai trailed off, amazed at how much he had said.

Ray seemed pretty amazed as well, but in a good way. What Kai had said was pretty frightening, as well as sad. But the fact that he was trusting Ray with his past, to help him with his past was phenomenal.

"And you were only six, that's harsh. I didn't realise something as bad as that happened to you." Ray said quietly, still stunned.

"Its only one memory" Kai said awkwardly, knowing that as bad as that had been it hadn't stopped, or even started there. He felt relieved that he had told someone something. It had felt that all of his memories had been crushing him, but now it was like some of that load had been lifted.

"By the way" Kai continued, in his monotone. "The others don't have to listen at the door all night."

Ray looked up startled and saw that Kai was right, four very sheepish heads poked around the door. Obviously very embarrassed at being caught, they stepped into the room muttering apologies. Apparently they hadn't managed to stay asleep for long and had got up to hear the conversation.

"You don't mind Kai?" Hilary asked cautiously.

"Ray would tell you eventually anyway, so there's not much difference." Kai said dismissively.

"In that case, we want to know everything. All of your past." Tyson demanded.

"Please Kai" Max said softly at seeing the doubt in Kai's expression, "It will make you feel better."

"I'm not sure that there's that much to tell." Kai argued weakly.

"You know we only want to help, don't you Kai?" Hilary said, trying to smile reassuringly.

"I know" Kai agreed, unable to meet her eyes. "Fine" he sighed.

* * *

Tell me what you think by reviewing.

Thank you very much for the reviews i have got so far. I love getting reviews.


	21. My story

'How did I get into this?' Kai thought as he sipped his black coffee, he hoped that the liquid would help to clear his mind. So far it wasn't working.

Ray was sat next to him, and the others who had spied on their conversation sat around the table as well. That included Tyson, Max, Hilary and Kenny, it looked like Rage had something better to do.

"I don't remember it all, only some of it. I remember being in the abbey when I was younger, I guess about five. I stayed at the abbey continuously from then to when I was ten. I kind of trashed the abbey by using black dranzer, that was how I lost my memory. I don't remember much from that day except that I was angry. I remember feeling so angry that I couldn't see straight, I just kept wanting what was happening at the abbey to stop.

I couldn't take it anymore. Black Dranzer used that to it's advantage, it told me that if I was powerful then nobody would be able to make me do anything I didn't want." Kai swallowed, debating whether to tell them something else that had convinced him. If he didn't then it would only haunt him he decided, so avoiding their eyes he told them.

"Boris said that the reason that I got hurt, punished so much was because I was weak. So I thought that if I was strong with black dranzer then I wouldn't get hurt anymore. I guess that's why I took black dranzer the second time in Russia. Because even though no one was hurting me at that time, I was scared that it might happen again. Especially when I saw Boris again and was reminded of the things that had happened to me in the abbey. It took your friendship that made me finally realise that not everyone wanted to hurt me. That I didn't need the power of black dranzer to protect myself from the world.

At the abbey the kids there, sometimes they would just disappear. Boris would take them away if they had done something really bad like lose a lot of matches. Mostly they came back, badly wounded but freshly determined on the need to win at any cost. Sometimes they didn't, you never knew if you were going to be one of those kids.

There were two categories for punishment at the abbey. Boris or Bathos. Bathos is Rage's step dad, as you should know. He was employed by the abbey as a torturer. Which was why Rage went to the abbey, they arrived about half a year after I did. Boris's methods of torture were crude, which was why some of the kids that he took away to be corrected never returned. He would just treat the child in question like a punching bag. The only tools I've ever seen him use is a whip and a couple of times when he was really angry a knife.

Bathos was different; he'd play with your mind as well as physical torture. He would pretend that it wasn't his fault that he had to hurt you. His 'work' was precise; he was like an artist in his profession. The key was to cause the most pain with the least lasting physical damage like scaring. A lot of the scars I have are faint because Bathos tried his best to make the damage he gave me to not scar.

I guess that he got bored with always being so precise in his work. Because he used Rage to take his anger out on. I guess you could say that I was his job and Rage was his hobby. The trouble is that he's used all his mental torture skills to convince her that he hurts her for her own good. To correct her behaviour, which is total bullshit of course, not that she'd believe me." Kai looked up, his face showing confusion at the sympathy in their expressions.

"I guess that's all" he confessed, "Unless you have any questions." he added as an after thought.

"I have one."

Kai turned his attention to Hilary, wondering what she would ask.

"Kai you've said what happened at the abbey, but what about before it? I mean you must have had parents, you couldn't have just appeared out of thin air at the age of five."

Kai nodded, "My grandfather didn't like me asking about my parents. But I remember him once saying that they had been killed about a month before I came to the abbey. He told me that some lunatic gang probably high on drugs broke into my parent's house while they were watching TV. They shot them execution style in the head. Apparently I was in the house when it happened, that's why he said that I couldn't remember it. Because I was so traumatised by what I had seen that I blocked it out, at least, that's my grandfathers theory."

"Kai that's terrible" Hilary said near tears, she felt like just hugging him to try and make him feel better. It was only Hilary's knowledge of how much Kai hated to be touched that stayed her.

Kai merely shrugged, "Its no big deal, its not like I remember it or anything."

"O.K" Max reasoned, "We've sorted out what happened at and before the abbey, but what about after?"

"After the black dranzer incident I was sent to my grandfather's house in Japan. His business is in Russia a lot of the time, so he wasn't there a whole lot. Which was good…"

"Why" Tyson cut in.

"Well as you already know he wasn't the best of grandfather's. He'd be angry with me a lot for some reason or another. He told me that if I didn't keep blading and winning at the tournament in Japan, then I'd have no use anymore and he'd kill me. So I kept training and searching for more power so that that would never happen.

Of course I failed when I lost to Tyson, I thought that he was going to kill me then because of my loss. Things were tense then, he kept me in suspense of what would happen. I didn't eat any of the food at the meals in his house, I was afraid that he might poison it. He liked to put toxins in my food from time to time, to keep me on my toes he called it. They'd keep me sick for days, so I figured that he might add something stronger that would kill me that time instead.

He finally got around to saying that he had bigger plans, that he wouldn't kill me yet. So then I went off with you guys and you know the rest."

"If you remember all that then how come you said that you hadn't remembered it all?" Ray asked curiously.

"Because I haven't, there's something else. Something dark that is on the edge of my mind, only I can't see it clearly." Kai looked down at his coffee, only to see that he must have finished it ages ago. He pushed the empty mug away from him, and crossed his arms on the table. His eyelids drooped, he was still so tired. He hadn't had a proper nights sleep in ages, too long even for him.

"Why does your own grandfather treat you like that?" Kenny exclaimed, clearly horrified.

"He just gets off on seeing me get hurt I guess." Kai's head was hung low, his eyes threatening to close. "I think he's afraid of me though, cause he only used to hurt me himself when I was too young to know how to fight back. Then he got Boris to take over, cause Boris didn't mind getting a black eye or a broken nose. Boris would just keep on punching and kicking until I couldn't fight back anymore. Then mostly Boris would keep on beating me up, until I became unconscious."

Kai wasn't even registering what he was saying anymore. "Grandfather came up with new ways to keep me in line when I was sent to live in his mansion in Japan. He called it keeping me on my toes, when he would visit sometimes he would slip a toxin into my food. It was usually when he was feeling angry about something I think, so I know that it wasn't for my benefit like he said it was.

The toxin would usually cause a fever high enough to make me barley strong enough to walk. Then he would hit me and beat me up like he was always too afraid to do when I had the power to fight back. He liked to hit me with objects as well as his fists; I always used to think that maybe this time he'd go too far. That he'd finally kill me this time, but I'd always wake up in the end."

* * *

**Flashback**

The boy awoke slowly, not really wanting to feel the pain that he knew would come. He wanted to stay in the safe nothingness of sleep for a little longer, maybe forever. His eyes opened to reveal the near darkness that surrounded him. Pain seized his body, reminding him of the torrent of fists from before.

In the moonlight that shone through a nearby window he spotted the table leg from before. It was smeared with dried blood; he thought it crude that a table leg had been used to beat him up. 'Where's the rest of the table?' he wondered idly as he struggled to sit up. His fingers slipped on the wooden floor, there was a liquid covering the finely varnished wood on which he lay.

He managed to push himself in a sitting position, and stared at the floor again. 'Blood' he thought numbly, 'that's all my blood'. He pushed himself to his feet, leaning heavily on the wall. He took one steady step after another, leaning all his weight on the wall to prevent him from slipping on the slick surface of the floor. He finally made it to the bathroom; everything was a bright white in colour. The trail of red behind him stood out on the shining white tiles.

He clung to the sink, hearing it creak beneath the weight he applied on it in his desperate fight to stay on his feet. His reflection in the mirror stared back at him, his white shirt hung off of one shoulder. It was ripped and covered in patches of scarlet; the rest of him wasn't much different. He was bruised and broken all over, blood leaked from countless places.

He focused on the mirror until all traces of emotion disappeared from his face. He would keep his feelings locked inside, that way no one would be able to get close enough to hurt him like his grandfather did. He had to be cold, emotionless, strong and powerful. That way this would stop happening, that way no one would be able to hurt him again.

His trembling fingers reached for the first aid kit.

**End Flashback**

* * *

Kai's head was lowered so far now that it was almost touching his arms that were rested on the table.

"What about Boris?" Hilary asked, moving so that she was close to Kai. "What were his reasons for hurting you?" She had realised that the more tried he was the less he seemed to keep back from them.

"Orders" Was Kai's barely audible answer, his head hit his arms and rested there. He mumbled something else that Hilary had to lean in to hear. Her face turned white, and she gave a small gasp of shock.

"What?" Tyson asked, "What did he say?"

Hilary swallowed heavily before continuing. "And Boris said that he liked to hear me scream." She said quoting what Kai had mumbled word for word.

"He seems more peaceful now" Max remarked looking at their sleeping captain.

"Yes" Ray smiled as he placed a gentle hand on Kai's back, he didn't even stir. "He does" the neko-jin confirmed.

Rage stood unnoticed behind the kitchen door. A small smile graced her lips as she walked back toward the bedroom. It was replaced by a frown as she thought of what she had done. Bathos hadn't said to do that, but she had anyway.

She sat on the floor in the corner of the room. If she didn't accomplish her mission then Bathos would punish her, she didn't want that. But then again, if she did accomplish her mission then Kai would get hurt. She just didn't know what to do.

* * *

Not sure how this turned out. What do you think? 


	22. Sunrise

Kai woke suddenly in the middle of the night. He sat up in the bed, his eyes searching what had made him wake. There was nothing that he could see; the others were fast asleep in their beds. The painful sound of Tyson's snoring broke the silence. But there was no reason that he could see for himself waking up. He was still tired.

He swung his legs quietly over the side of the bed; he felt a growing need to get up. He shook his head at the strange sensation and scooped Dranzer off of the bedside table. Maybe it was Dranzer causing him to do this, he didn't know and she was remaining silent.

Kai still wore his clothes from the day before. Although he didn't have his scarf on and his feet were bare. He made almost no sound as he made his way carefully to the door. He stepped out into the lounge area, closing the door silently behind him.

'What now?' he thought to himself as he looked about the moonlit room.

"Just wait" came a sweet sounding voice. It appeared to come from no particular place, and yet the voice seemed so familiar. He knew who that voice belonged to, he brought his blade up so he could see the bit piece in the light from the moon.

"Dranzer?" he whispered curiously, he waited for a long time but there was no answer.

'Guess I wait then' he figured, sliding his back down the wall next to the door. He brought his knees to his chest as if cold, he crossed his arms on top of them. Then rested his head comfortably in his arms. He didn't know how long it was before he heard the footsteps.

He raised his head expectantly to see a very sleepy Rage staring down at him. She was dressed in blue loose pyjama trousers and a baggy light blue t-shirt. She seemed so childlike as she rubbed the back of her hand across her eyes in a fashion suggesting that she was tired.

"Hi" she said settling down beside him, "I guess our bit beasts want us to talk."

"I guess," he said, although he thought that Dranzer could have chosen a better time. He was still exhausted from his long time without sleep. Just at the time when he could finally close his eyes without seeing a bloody past, and their bit beasts wanted them to have a heart to heart.

"I know you think that I'm doing wrong Kai, but you were at the abbey. You know how it goes; you do what you're told. Or you end up getting punished, I'm really sorry but I don't have a choice."

"That's just it Rage, you do have a choice. I chose, I left, and now I have friends and I'm never going back to that place." Kai's burning eyes met with Rage's aqua ones, she looked away.

"Please can we not fight about this Kai? I know that we weren't allowed friends at the abbey, but I think that you were my closest thing to that title. Which just shows how lonely it got in there. I don't have much more time to spend here, and I don't want to spend that time fighting. Please?" Rage said, her blue green eyes fixed on the floor.

"Besides" she added snuggling closer to Kai's side. "I'm really tired."

Kai eyed the dark haired girl with surprise as she closed her heavy eyes, leaning on his shoulder. Usually if someone had done that he would have just pushed them off, but this felt kind of nice. Kind of familiar and warm, he was struck with a feeling of deja vu. Where had this happened before?

* * *

**Flashback **

He was dying.

Only seven years old, and already he was dying. He stared at the stubborn whiteness of the sky, even though he didn't really see it. The parts of him that he could still feel were freezing, and he couldn't move. He'd tried, he really had. But after over two years of torture that had left him bleeding and helpless, he was finally dying.

It had been his first survival training out in the woods that were a part of the abbey grounds. It was the middle of winter in the freezing Russia, and he had been supposed to last for three days out here. Looks like he wouldn't make it.

He'd survived the first day fine, and then late on the second day he'd slipped while walking by the lake. He figured that it would be fine, that the ice would be thick enough. It turned out that he was wrong.

It had felt like a hundred of Bathos's torture knives were stabbing him all over as he had slipped through the ice into the water. He didn't remember how he got out of the water, only that it was cold. Dranzer had egged him on to keep on moving, to try and make it to the cave where he had firewood stored.

He'd finally run out of energy about half way there. He'd fell down into the soft blanket of snow, and despite Dranzer's attempts to get him moving. He hadn't been able to summon enough energy to get up again.

He still lay there, even though he was barely aware of the light of the third day shining on the glittering snow. No one would come looking for him until this day was over; he was scheduled to report back at the abbey at dawn tomorrow. There was no way that he would be able to last that long.

Dranzer was using all of her energy just to keep him alive. And as much as she tried to reassure him, he knew that she was almost out of energy. So his grandfather wouldn't have his tool anymore, he'd be disappointed. Not that Kai cared much about that; he'd never wanted to be the perfect solider in the first place. He'd just never been given any choice in the matter.

What a pity. What a waste.

Kai slowly began to close his dull crimson eyes. That was when he'd heard it. A crunching sound through the snow, like footsteps.

"What are you doing down there?" Came a voice, sounding like it was coming from very, very far away.

He weakly opened his eyes again. Directly above him he saw a face, the details were blurred. He couldn't see who it was; the lines and colours faded and wavered. He parted his blue lips slightly, as if attempting to form an answer. Not a sound escaped his throat.

"I'll help you" came the voice again, it echoed in his mind. The wavering figure loomed closer, covering his view. He felt something being placed on his chest, it was warm. He closed his eyes as the comforting warmth spread throughout his body. Until he could breath easily and feel even his previously numb fingers and toes before.

He looked up at the figure again, and saw that it wasn't blurred anymore. It was a girl with long black hair and smiling aqua eyes. She looked to be around six years old. She was wrapped up in a huge extremely warm looking coat that dragged across the snow as she moved. She stepped back, removing her hand from his chest.

"Come on silly" she said, offering a hand to help him to his feet. "You don't want to stay on the ground all day."

More than a little bit awed, he took the offered hand.

"How did you do that?" he stuttered shakily, he was still getting used to being able to talk again.

"Easy" she said with a huge smile. "I just used energy from my bit beast Tasmine to make you be warm again. It won't last long though, so we should really go find shelter." She held out her blade proudly for him to see. In the bit piece there was a picture of a red wolf surrounded with flames.

In his pocket Dranzer glowed and he took her out curiously.

"I think they like each other" The girl smiled.

He nodded and after pocketing Dranzer again began to head for the cave. He didn't much want to be frozen again. The cold air was already causing him to shiver.

"What's your name?" The girl asked as they walked along.

"Kai" Kai answered quickly.

"Cool, mines Rage. Well, that's what I call myself anyway. My mama used to call me something different, but she's gone now so that doesn't really matter."

Rage shivered, "It's kind of cold and creepy out here. But my papa said that I had to sleep out here tonight cause he's says that I'm a pain in the neck. But he's not my real papa; he's my step papa. So I don't think that it should matter what he says."

On the way to the cave Rage kept up her constant chatter. Kai found it more comforting than annoying he was surprised to realise. Out here she could talk as much as she wanted without getting told off, so he let her talk.

When they reached the cave he even joined in talking a little when she changed the subject to the different parts used in beyblading. That was something he knew a lot about, and he enjoyed discussing different weight disc combinations while they piled up the firewood.

Kai took out his blade and shot it at the pile of wood to get a blaze going. He settled down against the cave wall relaxing in the heat given off by the fire. Rage settled down beside him, for the moment her expression was serious.

"Kai, do ever wonder about what having a friend is like?"

The small boy looked at her curiously, "Friends aren't allowed at the abbey" he said simply.

"I know, but don't you ever wish that there was someone that could be there for you. No matter what?"

"I guess" Kai answered slowly.

"Lets pretend Kai, lets pretend that we're friends. That we're allowed to be friends, just for today. Please?"

The small girl smiled sadly at the almost fearful look on the boy's face.

"Don't worry Kai, Boris won't find out."

After thinking for a minute, Kai gave a small nod. "How do you be a friend?" he asked softly.

"By being nice" Rage answered, "by just being there and helping when you can."

Kai shivered again, the fire was burning low. There was no more firewood dry enough to use, and the cold was beginning to creep into his bones again.

"Here" the girl offered with a smile. She unbuttoned her huge coat and wrapped in around them both. Kai was comforted by the warmth as she rebuttoned the fur coat around them. The friendliness of the action was unfamiliar to the tortured boy. And he involuntarily froze as she snuggled into his side.

Finally however he relaxed, for the first time in a long time he felt safe. It wouldn't last forever, but for now it was all he wanted. He fell asleep with his head rested on top of her's.

**End Flashback**

* * *

He awoke in the same position he had been in the memory. He hadn't even noticed falling asleep. His movement as he sat up straighter woke up Rage.

"You saved my life in the snow," he whispered to the still dark room.

"Did you really only just remember that?" She asked, her tone showing disbelief.

"Yes"

"I never really fully believed that you had forgotten the abbey. I mean, it's so difficult to think that it's even possible to forget something like that."

Kai remained silent, his eyes fixed on the window as soft tones of light indicated that down was on its way. He hugged his knees loosely to his chest, his thoughts still lost in the memory.

"I wonder how long it will take," he said softly, "before all of my memories return."

Rage stared at him with a new look. One filled with dread, sorrow and a kind of a hope that she seemed sure would not happen.

"I hope it doesn't take long," she whispered under her breath as she watched the sun rise.

They sat in silence like that, until the sun had finally fully signalled the start of the next day. Whether they were friends or foes stayed unspoken as the memory of when they had first met replayed in both their minds.

'We could have been friends' Kai thought, a painful feeling of sorrow rising in his chest. He didn't even suspect that right at that moment Rage was thinking the same thing.

* * *

What is your opinion of this chapter, i'd really like to know. just click on the review button and tell me. I read every single review and LOVE getting them.

This is all heading somewhere by the way. I'll update soon, sooner if you review and remind me.


	23. Actions and concequences

"Ray, I'm going to ask you a favour and I need you to at least listen."

The neko-jin glared with amber eyes at Rage. It was true that he had felt a little sorry for her when he had heard about her stepfather. But it still remained that she was the enemy, she was teamed with the people who wanted to hurt Kai. That made her his enemy.

It was early morning and they were the only two people up at this moment. Kai had stumbled his way back to bed to sleep in for the first time any of them could remember. Thinking of how little he'd been sleeping for the past several days, Ray wouldn't be surprised if Kai didn't wake up for a week. At the very least.

"It's to help Kai, but I need you to trust me for it to work" the girl looked up at him with the most sincere expression he had ever seen. She seemed really desperate. Whether her desperation was for Kai for her mission was another matter.

"Why should I trust you? All you've done is caused hurt to Kai, should I really believe that you want to help him now?" Ray ground out; his friend's well being was precious to him. As much as he wanted to be able to trust her, he couldn't risk Kai getting even more hurt.

Their team captain had always seemed so tough and self-confident. When in actual fact that was just a mask to hide the scared child within. The one who was frightened of needles, of being touched and of getting close to people. Because, when growing up that child had been hurt by the people that should have been caring for him. His grandfather had been behind it all, he had been Kai's guardian after all.

Ray still could not believe that Kai's own grandfather could be as heartless as sending the boy to the abbey. To Boris and Bathos, it was unbelievable that people could be so heartless.

"I know that you have no reason to trust me Ray. But you have to believe me when I say that whatever has happened so far is nothing compared to what they plan to do. Kai is weak now because his memories aren't returning fast enough. He is in great danger, and he's running out of time." Rage stood in front of Ray, her aqua eyes blazing with desperation.

Ray looked back, uncertain. He wanted to believe her, but he was still wary as to whether she was trustworthy.

"I was trained to show no emotions, to feel nothing. I was always bad at that particular training, but they finally managed it. To make me nothing but a tool to do as I was ordered, like they trained everyone else as. But now with Kai, those emotions I fought to suppress are coming back. I am not trained to care about anyone, but despite my orders I don't want Kai to get hurt again.

It's unsettling to say the least. This is the only way I can think of to give Kai at least a chance. Without completely defying Bathos's orders. But I need the team's help."

Ray hesitated before nodding at the dark haired girl.

"I'll see what I can do."

* * *

"Ray, I'm really not sure about this." Max whispered, as the whole team watched their team captain sleep.

"Neither am I Max" Ray admitted quietly, "But we can't risk doing nothing."

They were gathered in the boy's bedroom. Kenny sat on a nearby bed with Dizzi open on his lap. Hilary leaned over his shoulder to keep an eye on the screen. While Tyson, Ray, Max and Rage each stood at a corner of the bed on which Kai slept fairly peacefully. Rage and Ray were at the head of the bed, and Max and Tyson were stood at the bottom corners.

"Are you ready?" Rage asked with an obvious effort to be nice.

"How do you know that this will even work?" Tyson asked, worried for his friend.

Rage fished out her blade from her pocket and held it up for them to see. The fire shrouded wolf that was her bitbeast stood out boldly on the bit chip.

"Tasmine told me that this was the only way that wouldn't harm his mind. While still restoring the last of his memories quickly. The real question is how will he react to the recovered memories. After all, they must be something bad to remain hidden for so long. Now, are you ready?" Rage questioned evenly.

The others nodded glumly, clearly not liking to put their trust in her.

Rage carefully picked up Dranzer from the side table. To everyone's surprise, Dranzer didn't wake up Kai like she usually would have done. Apparently Dranzer was putting her faith in Rage's plan as well. The blue and red blade glowed warmly as it was placed on Kai's chest. Kai remained sleeping peacefully.

"Now face your bitbeasts toward Kai and concentrate on allowing him to remember. Close your eyes if it helps. The combined energy from our bitbeasts should be more than enough to dispose of any walls blocking his memories from him. Just try to relax and think calm thoughts, there should be no reason to alarm his mind and wake him up." Rage ordered, before holding Tasmine in front of her and shutting her ocean eyes.

"Don't you think that Kai might be kind of mad when he wakes up. Wouldn't it be better to wait till he's awake so that we can ask him his permission first?" Hilary interjected, causing Rage to open a sparkling blue green eye to look at her.

"To help his unconscious let go of the memories it's holding back. First his mind has to be relaxed enough for there to be access to the subconscious. In sleep the barriers around the mind relax, to do this he has to be asleep and unaware. Now, everybody concentrate." With that Rage's eyes closed again and she concentrated on the task at hand.

After a couple of minutes Tasmine began glow with a soft red light. Then Drigger began to glow as well, and then Dragoon joined in, then Draciel. Soon Kai's sleeping form was bathed in the warm light emitted from the blades, Dranzer began to glow. Her comforting scarlet light, which was really energy from her sprit, moved like mist to cover her master's sleeping form.

The bladers opened their eyes to see what was happening.

Instead of being calmed by the light, Kai began to shiver. He frowned with what seemed to be confusion on his sleeping face. As the glow from the blade's dissipated he began to toss and turn. Alarm fired across his previously calm face as his fists unconsciously gripped the bed sheets that half covered him.

"It's done" Rage said, sounding satisfied as she pocketed her blade. Seeing the confused faces surrounding her she elaborated.

"He's remembering," she said simply.

"What do we do now?" Tyson questioned putting away his blade.

"Now, we wait" Rage answered, perching on Kai's bedside table. She settled down comfortably as if for a long wait, crossing her arms over her chest. She examined Kai's face, seemingly unemotionally.

Kenny suggested that the team take it in turns to watch so that the others could have breakfast. As well as other tasks. Everyone readily agreed, and Ray straight away volunteered to take first watch as he'd already eaten. This was decided upon, and soon it was just Kai, Ray and Rage left in the room.

Rage refused to move from her spot watching Kai. She took in his every expression and movement with all the professionalism of a doctor studying their patient. She had ceased to even talk, not that Ray was inviting her to talk or anything. He still felt wary of her. Still, he could not help but glance at her every now and again. To look for any sign of the emotions she had said that she was rediscovering. There wasn't much sign of any so far. He wanted to see some so that he could trust himself to believe her story.

Kai turned his head from side to side feverishly. Sweat beaded on his pale skin, sliding down his tattooed cheeks slowly. Reminding the watchers of tears. The expression of pure terror on the unconscious boy's face was excruciating to watch. It was all that Ray could do to not rush over and wake him up from his nightmare. Again, Rage merely watched, her face a blank. Hiding whatever might be going on inside her head.

Time seemed to drag by as Kai tossed and turned, trying unsuccessfully to escape whatever memory had been let loose to prey on his mind.

Ray found himself turning away from the sight, to stare at the floor frustrated. It just wasn't his way to leave someone to suffer in pain when he could do something about it. Especially as he still wasn't completely convinced that he had done the right thing. What if he they had inadvertently hurt Kai even more?

After all he had taken the advice of Kai's enemy. That speech she had given him to convince him to help her. What if that had all been lies? After all, it wasn't like she was showing herself to have any feelings at all. She was just staring at the hurting Kai as if it was perfectly all right for him to be that way. What if…

Ray stopped as a sound of someone moving reached his ears. He looked up curiously, his amber eyes widening slightly at what he saw.

Kai had tossed around so much that his bed sheets had become hopelessly tangled around his legs. The dreaming teen had gripped the sheets so tight with his shaking fists that they had twisted tight over his legs, cutting off circulation to his feet.

That wasn't what had caught Ray's eye. What had surprised Ray was that Rage had noticed.

She tucked a stay strand of jet-black hair behind her ear as she examined the boy. Her head tilted almost comically as her aqua eyes flickered over his shuddering form, as if assessing what would be the statically correct move to fix this problem.

Eventually she reached to attempt to prise the sheet out of his clenched fist. Which was much easier said than done, as he really didn't seem to want to let go. He was clutching the sheet as if it were his last lifeline. As a small child clutches onto its teddy bear when it's afraid. Kai was afraid, and he didn't want to let go.

Rage frowned, unsuccessful in her efforts. She looked at Kai like you would look at a math problem you just could not solve. Her expression was deeply frustrated, almost annoyed.

Until…until she looked at his face. He looked so terrified, it was heart wrenching to see. Usually he was so strong; he always tried to be so strong to hide how he really felt inside.

Now he was just a scared kid, that was how she felt most of the time. Instinctively, her hand went to his again. Only instead of using force, she simply tucked her hand into his. Stroking the back of his hand gently with her thumb.

By the time she had noticed what she was doing, he had already began to relax. Blinking in confusion she saw that his death grip on the sheets had loosened.

She hesitated momentarily before using her spare hand to easily untangle the sheets. She draped them over his slightly calmer form carefully. Her eyes softened with something similar to pride as she realised that he appeared to be more peaceful now.

Her head shot up as she felt someone watching her. Her eyes narrowed as she glared at Ray, for some reason she suddenly felt very self-aware.

"What?" she growled, raising an eyebrow as he continued to stare at her. She still hadn't let go of Kai's hand; if it gave him comfort to have someone hold his hand then she would do just that.

She'd never had anyone offer her comfort when she had been a child, and she doubted that he had much either. So if holding his hand made him feel a little safer, then she was just glad that she could help someone.

"Nothing" Ray insisted sheepishly. He was surprised to notice that he had been smiling. But he was happy; he'd been waiting for a sign that there was some feeling inside her. Something that would allow him to believe her story, he'd just found it. Unknowingly his mouth curved into an easy grin again, a pointy fang poking over his bottom lip.

"Riiight" Rage said sounding unconvinced. Her midnight black eyebrow was raised so high that it was nearly lost under her messy fringe.

A sudden movement halted the conversation immediately.

Rage looked down in shock to see that Kai had bolted upright in the bed. He'd somehow woken up while they were talking. His grip on her hand had become non-existent; he'd probably just had only needed the comfort of his hand being held while he was asleep in a nightmare. While he was afraid, now he didn't seem afraid.

He seemed empty. His eyes were dull and lifeless as they stared ahead of him blankly. His breathing was shallow and calm, but he didn't seem to be aware of anything. He was absolutely and completely still, unmoving.

Alarmed at his passiveness, Rage placed a hand on his shoulder. Concerned, her eyes widened as she noticed that he didn't even react. Everyone had learnt over the few days how sensitive Kai was to being touched. This wasn't right.

"Kai?" she questioned, leaning her face right close to his so as to be aware of the slightest response.

There was none.

The grey haired teen merely stared ahead, his eyes unfocused and his muscles untensed under her hand. Rage was faintly aware of Ray's own efforts to get Kai to respond.

This wasn't right; this wasn't how Kai would act.

Rage gripped his shoulder tightly as she stared at his unseeing eyes. Waiting for a response, a blink, a sound, anything.

Deep inside the guilt had already begun to claw at her heart.

'What have I done?'

* * *

Wow i haven't updated for a while. I had coursework A-level stuff, plus evil tests, sorry.

I'll try to update sooner.

Please, please review. I'd love to know your opinion of how this chapter went.

Just press the pretty button. You know you want to.


	24. Emotions

The grey haired teen merely stared ahead, his eyes unfocused and his muscles untensed under her hand. Rage was faintly aware of Ray's own efforts to get Kai to respond.

This wasn't right; this wasn't how Kai would act.

Rage gripped his shoulder tightly as she stared at his unseeing eyes. Waiting for a response, a blink, a sound, anything.

Deep inside the guilt had already begun to claw at her heart.

'What have I done?'

* * *

Without warning Kai swung his legs stiffly over the side of the bed and got up. He scooped up his blade and pocketed it without even looking at anything. His eyes remained dull and blank as he made his way unsteadily out of the door.

Rage and Ray shared a shocked glance, before they rushed out in pursuit.

They saw him disappear into the kitchen, and followed uncertainly. A racket of clinking metal caused them to step rather warily into the room.

Kai was fumbling through the knife drawer, picking up each blade in turn and examining it. Before throwing it back into the drawer in annoyance. His frustration growing as each knife he studied appeared to be the wrong one.

Tyson and the others stepped into the room. Halting suddenly as they caught sight of the near fuming Kai.

"Kai?" Tyson questioned cautiously, "Are you all right?"

The grey haired teen didn't seem to hear as he slid a small sharp looking blade into his belt, looking satisfied with that knife at least. He stood still for a minute, just staring at the gleaming knifes in the drawer. Before he snapped back to sorting out the knifes again. Taking them out of the drawer and placing them on the counter in front of him. His back was to his friends.

"Kai?" Ray tried, approaching his friend as if he were a startled animal that would turn on him given the slightest wrong move.

"What are you planning to do with that knife?" Ray made his best effort to keep his voice calm. There was no telling what Kai might do in this state. His whole body language had become unpredictable and unfamiliar.

"To kill him of course"

The voice was so quiet and blatant that for a moment Ray, like the others could only stand. Blinking confusedly at the sudden phrase from their traumatised captain.

While just the fact that he was still able to form speech was comforting. What he had said was much less so.

At long last, Kai snatched a large blade from the carefully laid out selection on the counter. His head remained tilted slightly forward. Causing his sleep messed up hair to flop forward defensively, casting his face in shadow and hiding his crimson eyes from view.

"To kill who?" Kenny squeaked from his spot practically hiding behind Hilary in his nervousness at his friend's behaviour. The fact that he was carrying a knife wasn't especially comforting either.

Kai turned toward the door leading to the hall. Toward the hotel lobby where the large glass doors lead to the world outside. He seemed barely conscious, as he took a wavering step toward his destination.

"Kai" Ray ordered, stepping suddenly to his friend's side. Kai halted his process immediately, his much needed concentration broken. Ray made sure to maintain some distance though; Kai was gripping rather tightly to that knife.

"Give me the knife Kai" Ray pleaded, trying to remain calm. In situations such as this you had to remain very calm and reassuring, not that he'd ever been in a situation such as this before.

Kai stood still, with his shoulders slumped and his gaze lowered. His arms hung limp by his sides, yet his knuckles were tinted white from where he was gripping the large knife rigidly in his fist.

He stayed like that for a moment, before walking forward again. Without a word to any of his friends. He was forced to an abrupt halt when Rage impulsively stepped into his path.

Her eyes flashed dangerously as she deliberately spread her arms wide to block his path.

"I'm not letting you leave Kai," she stated firmly, blue green eyes narrowed. Her haphazard coal black hair giving her a wild appearance.

"You don't understand" Kai growled, his lowered head still causing his hair to obstruct his face from view.

"Then help me understand Kai" Rage said simply, firmly crossing her arms over her chest to show that she was serious about this. She was still unconsciously searching for his gaze, so that she could stare him down. To make him see it her way.

Slowly Kai raised his head, only when she met his eyes her plans of staring him down went out the window.

Tears pooled in his crimson eyes, sliding silently down the sides of his face. He didn't even seem aware as to the fact that he was crying. The fury in his glare was as strong as ever, stronger in fact. His eyes were practically blazing with rage and anger.

"You don't get it!" he accused her vehemently. "He killed them!"

"He killed them," he repeated with less volume. "They're dead because of him…so I've got to kill him" he finished thoughtfully glancing at the knife in his hand.

His hand was trembling he realised. _Why was that?_ He puzzled, before his attention was drawn to the pitter-patter of tears hitting the floor by his feet. He frowned confused…was he crying?

"Tell me who's dead Kai" Rage said, trying to keep her voice calm and steady. Kai didn't appear to be in the best state of mind, and he was holding a knife. Not to mention the fact that she was the only thing between him and the door.

"My parents" he said softly, his voice barely a whisper.

"He killed my parents alright!" he closed his eyes, yelling furiously at the only person standing between him and the doorway. The person stopping him from plunging his knife into his target, from getting his much wanted revenge. Hot tears trailed down his anger filled face, which was quickly being joined by frustration.

"They were unarmed and he bloody shot them through the head! Is that what you wanted to hear!"

Liquid leaked through his tightly shut eyelids, burning his cheeks as they travelled down his face. His throat felt as dry as sandpaper as he tried uselessly to stop crying. As a small child he had become so good at hiding his emotions, learning fast that emotions were a weakness that brought about greater pain. Maybe his time spent with the blade breakers had softened him, or maybe the torment of his memories had just proved to be too much.

Either way, he could stop it. He couldn't control it, and it frustrated him to no end. His mind kept drifting back to how much blood there had been, how it had stained the pale carpet a deep red. How his mother had screamed and cried so loud that she no longer made any sense.

In the films he had watched with his team. When the hero in the movie had been threatened with death, he'd stayed strong. Insulting his enemy to the bitter end, even with a gun to his head. The hero always remained cool, determined and sure that he would win. Then the rescue would come, a few seconds before the trigger would have caused death. Or else the hero would figure some way out of the mess he was in, no matter how bad the odds.

Real life just wasn't like that.

In real life there were no last minute rescues. No ways out, no heroes. And it wasn't fair. It wasn't fair at all, they hadn't deserved that. They had been nice, good, kind. They had loved him, and he had loved them back.

He remembered his father had used to joke and play a lot. He would go down on all fours, to little Kai's height. And he would pretend to be a giant ferocious bear that ate up little boy's whole. He would roar and growl so loud that Kai, being small and unstable on his feet at the time would promptly fall on his rear, shocked.

Then he would stumble after the small boy. Moving so slowly that Kai found time to doge between his towering limbs. And even to clamber onto the giant bear's back before he was finally caught. Then his bear of a dad would tickle the now out of breath child relentlessly, until Kai giggled so much that he got hiccups.

His mother would shake her head at them both, seemingly in disapproval at their immature behaviour. But then she could not help but laugh as her young son squealed with joy as he escaped from the 'giant bear'. Not knowing that this peace wouldn't last, that Kai's time of being a child would soon be over. That they're lives would soon be over.

Rage looked worried as she placed an unsure hand on his shoulder.

"Kai" she said, ignoring the fact that he stepped back from her touch. His eyes still squeezed shut as his entire body shook with emotion. He appeared almost afraid of the emotions he was portraying.

"Believe me when I say that although this person killed something special to you. They've still got some time to suffer in life before they should suffer in death. And from what I understand, murderers get a one-way pass to prison if you just tell people what you saw. Besides no matter how many people you have seen kill or hurt, you should never become like them yourself."

Kai thought for a minute before very reluctantly agreeing with her. He lowered his head ashamedly trying to hide the tears that wouldn't stop scalding his skin. He hadn't thought what it would make him if he killed. He didn't want to become like that, his parents wouldn't want him to kill anyone either. He knew that much, not even for their revenge. For his revenge.

"Now give Ray the knife" Rage said quietly, her eyes hard and her voice firm.

His hand wavering, Kai brought the blade up to waist height. Hesitating before offering it hilt first to Ray's waiting hand.

"And the other one" Rage reminded him softly.

Kai blinked, confused for a moment before remembering about the small knife tucked into his belt. He gave it carefully to Ray, who placed them just as carefully into the knife drawer.

The room turned silent for a few minutes, as no one was able to think of anything suitable to say. Finally it was Kai, with downcast eyes who broke the quiet.

"I'm sorry," he murmured, clearly trying hard to hide the fact that he was crying.

"Its all right buddy" Tyson said before anyone else got a chance to speak. He moved closer to Kai, afraid that the shivering boy might just collapse at any given moment. Tyson didn't reach out to touch him however, afraid that an action like that might very well shift Kai back into defensive mode.

For a moment Kai stayed silent, his frame shuddering. And his fists clenching and unclenching themselves like he was trying to make his mind up what to do. His breathing was deliberately faint to attempt to conceal and control his crying.

"If I…" Kai started, choking slightly on the words. He looked almost like a small child afraid of being told off.

"If I say that I can't handle this…will you think that I am weak?" he kept his eyes glued to the floor.

"Are you kidding Kai!" Max exclaimed moving closer to the older boy. "You're the strongest out of the lot of us. If any one of us were in the same situation as you are now, we'd have been a blubbering mess on the floor a long time ago."

"Yeah" Ray put in smiling at the disbelieving look on Kai's face. The slate haired teenager had unglued his eyes from the floor to look at them curiously. "Its if you weren't crying that would really get us worried. Crying is a way to get things out of your system, it makes you feel better."

"All its doing is giving me a headache at the moment" Kai choked through tears. He stumbled slightly, his head felt light and his eyes were blurry.

"Kai" Ray said, picking his words carefully. "I know that you don't like being touched, but if I hug you then will you freak out?"

Kai shrugged, his movements were sluggish. And once again he felt exhausted, only this time emotionally rather than physically.

Ray nodded politely before slowly taking a step forward. After taking a moment to assess whether Kai was still comfortable about this, he gently wrapped his arms around Kai's shaking form. Making sure that Kai could back out at any time he wanted.

Instinctively Kai tensed, his eyes becoming wide as he willed himself to stay still. While his mind was screaming at him to move, to get out of Ray's grip. Touch was meant for hurt not for comfort, he knew that. Boris had taught him that, and Voltaire and Bathos. His entire childhood had been about that…

…Wait. Not his entire childhood. His mum and dad had hugged him; his dad had even wrestled with him. They had never hurt him. So wouldn't that mean that not all physical contact was bad?

**Flashback **

The little boy ran excitedly to the door, following his father. His age must have only been around four. The thickest coat imaginable weighed him down, but he still managed to bounce up and down impatiently as he waited for his father to open up the door leading to the outside.

"Wait, Kai don't go outside without your scarf," his mother ordered firmly, kneeling down in front of the impatient boy. Kai made his best 'annoyed' face at her as she wrapped the giant white scarf around his small neck.

"Maaaam…its too long!" he complained, looking down to where it trailed on the ground by his feet.

"That just means that it will keep you extra warm" she smiled making sure that his coat was done up tight enough. "You'll grow into it."

"In about a hundred billion years" he said sulkily, staring frustrated at the impossibly long scarf.

"Don't be like that Kai. I'm not going to see you for a couple of hours while you play with your papa. So how about a goodbye hug." She said, clearly not used to being separated from the child.

"I'm not gonna be gone long Mama" Kai argued stubbornly. But he still leaned in for the hug anyway; hiding how much comfort it gave him.

"C'mon papa" Kai yelled impatiently as he ran out of the door into the freezing snow, his scarf billowing behind him.

**End Flashback**

Kai shuddered as the tears began to flow freely. Gentle sobs began to rack his frame as years of pain, torture, betrayal and loss were finally let free as tears. He hadn't cried in so long that it was a relief to be able to finally feel safe enough to be able to relax and let it all go. His hands hung as fists by his sides.

His parent's death kept on repeating itself in front of his glazed eyes. Making him feel fear enough to tentatively raise his hands enough to return the hug. So that he could feel safer, as he more or less cowered in Ray's arms. Afraid of what he was seeing, or rather, remembering.

'He's our son! You can't take him, we won't let you!' The voices rang out in his head.

'He's only a child for gods sake! He doesn't care about training or taking over the world. He just wants to play games and have fun!'

'What kind of monster are you!'

'GET AWAY FROM HIM!'

'Mama, help!'

'Get off you're hurting me!'

'Mama…why are you crying?'

Kai shuddered uncontrollably as Ray attempted to calm him down. Kai was shivering…and was afraid…very afraid. He'd squeezed his eyes shut again, in an attempt to block out the voices. Small amounts of liquid still leaked from his eyes, but he'd more or less run out of tears to shed.

After a while in which Kai refused to be calmed down, Hilary couldn't take it any more. She approached Kai carefully, before gently placing her head on the back of Kai's shoulder. She stroked his hair reassuringly, hating to see him so distraught.

When he didn't seem to react to this, the others moved carefully over to join in the group hug. Every one of them wanting to somehow, in some way offer Kai some comfort. To make him feel better, and safer. Even Kenny found a spare bit of shoulder to place a reassuring hand on.

Kai shivered, the voices filling his ears. Until he could barely take it anymore.

"We're all here for you Kai" Ray whispered, making Kai aware for the first time that the others had joined in the hug. Strangely enough, it didn't feel as bad as he thought it would have.

"We're your friends" Tyson added firmly.

"And we're going to help you through this" Max finished confidently.

And then…the voices stopped.

Kai blinked confused at the sudden peace in his mind. Knowing that all his friends were there for him helped somehow. That he wasn't alone in this help somehow.

He pulled slowly out of the hug, not wanting them to think that they'd scared him somehow.

"Thanks" he said nervously wiping his tears away, "I feel better now".

"Kai, I hate to ask this now" Hilary started, secretly mopping away a couple of tears of her own. "But we really do have to know who killed your parents. Do you feel up to telling us?"

Kai bit his lip anxiously, before shaking his head slightly. He didn't want to say, that would make all the voices come back again. In his pocket his bit beast glowed a deep red.

"Dranzer says that she can show you" Kai said, obviously not very keen on the idea. Silently he argued with the phoenix, but she could not be swayed. Apparently, she had already gone and gotten the other bit beast's approval for it. Kai's eyes darkened as she argued that he was not in the best state of mind to be making these kinds of decisions.

The others however were still confused as to the meaning of that. Including Rage, who had kept to herself during the little 'hug' incident. Merely watching fairly self consciously, and if truth be told a little jealously as well.

"Kai?" Tyson asked curiously, "What exactly do you mean when you say that Dranzer can show us?"

Kai was saved from answering when a red glow from his blade shone so bright that they had to look away. When they looked back, Kai had slumped to the floor.

They were robbed of any time to panic as the same bright glow began to happen to all their beyblades. Even Hilary, although absent of a blade and a bit beast still slumped to the floor unconscious like everyone else.

Just what was Dranzer planning?

* * *

I'm not really sure how this chapter went. Its a hard one to write because of all the emotion involved.

The next chapter will be called 'show and tell'

Please review and tell me your opinion of this chapter.


	25. Show and tell

Disclamier: I don't own beyblade...but i do ownthis plotand any OC's that you might see on here...including Rage and Bathos.

By the way...just a note...but the song 'im with you' by avirl lavene goes well with this chapter. I think its just the feel of the song...try listening to it before or while reading this chapter.

* * *

Tyson blinked…staring in confusion at his new surroundings. He was standing in the living room of a house that he'd never been in before. It felt intrusive to be in this warm place…with the fire burning happily in the grate. This feeling was not helped by the fact that there were people here.

A woman with long shining navy hair had her back to him…she was sitting on a comfortable looking sofa, watching a programme about raising children, on the television in front of her. It wasn't long before he saw the child in question; a little boy crouched down by the side of the sofa…examining a variety of blade pieces that were piled on the carpet in front of him.

The boy could have only been four years old; the tall man that was sat cross-legged opposite him dwarfed his small figure. All the occupants of the room had their backs to Tyson with the soul exception of the man. They were a family, Tyson realised feeling very self-conscious.

"Um…sorry…but can any of you tell me where I am?" His voice seemed to echo…making him wonder if this was some weird dream that he was having. Only it didn't seem that way…it was almost as if this room and these people felt more real than he did. He could hear the sounds from the television and they weren't echoing…everything in this room seemed so bright and cheerful; and it might have been his imagination but when he glanced at his hands they didn't seem quite right…they looked faded somehow. As if he wasn't all here…it was strange…

"What's going on?" he questioned the space around him futilely.

"Didn't you hear me?" Tyson tried desperately as one last attempt to make someone listen…he knew before the words left his mouth that it wouldn't work. Not even the man had noticed him…he had even looked directly at him. Only his stare had simply gone through him…as if he wasn't really there…

"That won't work Tyson," An echoing voice behind him announced coldly causing him to spin around.

"Kai?" Tyson asked…relief at seeing someone that he knew registering among the confusion on his face. "Guys" Tyson gave a small smile at seeing that Max, Ray, Kenny, Hilary and even Rage were standing next to Kai.

"Any of you got a clue what is going on?" The navy haired blader questioned…the note of uneasiness in his voice betraying how he was feeling at the oddness of the situation.

"Dranzer's being stupid" Kai stated simply as a way of explanation.

The puzzlement on everyone's faces increased as the room they were in suddenly flashed a violent red. A haunting screech filled their ears…causing all but Kai to spin around, confusedly searching for the source. The noise left behind a feeling of unease as the last eerie notes faded to silence.

None of the family appeared to have heard or seen anything. They just carried on as if nothing had happened. The mother turned her head slightly to comment on an aspect of the programme with the father. While the little boy struggled…frustrated, to capture his father's attention again.

"Well you are" Kai growled to the empty space around him…undisturbed by the strange looks he was receiving from his friends.

"Kai" Ray said, quicker on the uptake than the others. "Where has Dranzer taken us?"

"Dranzer thought it would help to show you this. You're basically in my memory…so don't touch anything important."

Kenny froze; he'd just bent down to inspect a stray beyblade component. He halted…his fingertips just millimetres away from the discarded object.

"Its alright chief" Rage said…breaking her previous silence. "Kai's just messing with you. You couldn't affect this place if you wanted to. Try it."

Kenny gave a questioning look to his friends…who merely shrugged…having no idea whether she was telling the truth or not. Kai pointedly avoided his gaze…keeping his crimson eyes fixed on the little boy, who was now tugging in frustration on his father's jumper in an effort to get his attention. The father had a small smile playing at his lips as he ignored his son…he was playing with the child.

Kenny tensed, closing his eyes fearfully against what might happen. He slowly reached to touch the object…only to snap open his eyes in pure surprise as he was greeted by the strangest sensation. A warm tingling feeling in his fingertips…it was then that he saw it…the thing that caused him to immediately jerk his hand back.

His fingers had disappeared through the solid beyblade piece…

After he had assured himself that all his fingers were actually still attached…he slumped to the ground to catch his breath. Making sure to keep his distance from anything that he might faze through…or whatever had just happened.

"Hey Rage…how did you know that?" Max asked, tilting his head curiously.

Rage smiled…causing her blue green eyes to sparkle…she just looked too innocent right now considering whom she was working for.

"Tasmine knows all" she declared, caringly fingering her pocketed blade. It was warm against her hand.

"Wait a minute Kai." Tyson said…his eyes widening in realisation. "If this is your memory…that means that…that's you!"

The navy haired blader stared at the tiny child…who it seemed had finally recaptured his father's attention and was celebrating this fact by piling the grownup's hands full of beyblade pieces. It made sense…he was surprised that he hadn't noticed it before. The child's hair, although shorter was exactly the same as Kai's…they probably had the same eyes as well. Although since they couldn't see the child's eyes it was debateable.

It was just so strange to think that Kai…their friend Kai who they had known for years had ever been this tiny child. The kid looked like he'd only just turned four at the very most. He seemed so small…and…happy. There wasn't a single trace of the tough cold blader that he had become.

"And those are…" Max began…trailing off…

"My parents" Kai finished for him…sounding bitter. "Yeah I know."

His mum…with long shining navy hair had kind grey eyes. The result was unusual…but without a doubt very beautiful. His father had Kai's bright crimson eyes…there was no doubt that that had been where Kai had gotten his strange eye colour. He also had a rather messy head of dark grey hair…which interestedly didn't make him look older than his age as it might have done. Both parents were in their late twenties.

A doorbell rang suddenly…causing all of the occupants of the room to look up. After ruffling the child's hair…the father got up to answer it…

"Stop Dranzer, stop!" Kai began pacing…as if trying to escape from something…only to realise that he was well and truly trapped. "They don't need to see this…please!"

The room glowed red again…only this time it was warmer…comforting somehow.

"What are you doing here!" The father's voice was loud enough to be heard clearly from the hallway. "No go away! You have no right to come here and order me around!"

The mother ran out of the room to back her husband up so quickly that she neglected to turn off the television. The woman on the screen carried on talking about how important love and support were to a child's mental development.

The young child…looked bewildered…finally noticing that something was wrong.

"Mama?" he questioned…poking his head over the arm of the sofa carefully. He sounded frightened by the amount of shouting that was going on in the hallway. There seemed to be a fair amount of other noises going on as well. It sounded like somebody was fighting.

He had crimson eyes…wide innocent ones that stared curiously at the doorway. Apart from the age…the biggest difference that he seemed to have from Kai was that his face had no blue shark fins tattooed on it.

"I don't care that you think it'll make them understand. I don't care about that! Make it stop now!" Kai had his hands clamped firmly over his ears in response to the shouting. He stopped pacing…but only because there wasn't enough room to pace without either walking into one of his friends or stepping closer to what was happening in the hallway.

The mother re-entered the room…sprawling on the pale carpet…apparently pushed there by an unseen person. The father rushed after her…tenderly wiping away a trail of blood from her lip. Before he angrily spun around to face the people that had followed him into the room.

The small child sensibly ducked behind sofa…but before he did he caught a glimpse of the man that was leading the other three heavily armed men. He blinked in confusion as he listened to his dad shout at the bad people who hurt mama. Before it escaped his lips in the quietest of whispers…"Grandpa".

He recognised him…but only barely. A year ago…he'd come around for Christmas. It had been a very special thing cause mama had said that Grandpa was a very busy man. He'd given him a present…a number of large books that had complicated long words in them. He still couldn't read them now…but he'd said thank you very politely like his mama had told him to.

Grandpa had seemed like a very nice person…despite the fact that papa didn't seem to like him. He'd read him lots of stories about people going on huge exciting quests to retrieve power and riches. Kai had just decided that he liked having a grandfather when it had happened…

Kai had fallen down…scraping his knee…it had hurt…and he had cried…

Grandpa had been angry with him for crying. Kai had never realised what a bad act crying was until then. Grandpa had said that because he had Hiwatari blood in him…then it was a sin to be so weak because Hiwatari blood was strong.

Papa had been mad too…very mad. But he had been mad at Grandpa…he'd seen the scarlet mark on Kai's face…and the blood that had trickled from his mouth. He'd known straight away what had happened…and had thrown Grandpa out immediately.

It had been scary.

"Where's the boy!" Voltaire demanded…to the watching blade breakers he looked the same as always. With maybe a little less grey hair…

He towered over his kneeling son and daughter in law. The pair were forced to stay still by the guns that were pointing at their heads. Both looked fierce, even while on their knees. They were doing the best that they could to hide the fear that they were feeling…especially when their son was mentioned.

"He's not here" the mother lied desperately… "He's having a sleepover at one of his friend's houses. He won't be back until the morning…"

Kai shivered in hiding place…mama was lying. Even after she'd told him that it was a very bad thing to do. It told him what to do though…he had to stay here and not be seen by anyone. Because if he was seen…then he didn't want Grandpa to find out that mama was lying. He might hurt her for doing something as bad as that…

"WHERE!" Volitaire boomed down at them…he looked like he was enjoying having this much power.

"What do you want with him anyway?" The father asked…barely able to contain his fury.

"You're the one who has been investigating my plans…you tell me?" Volitaire smiled down at his son. It just caused his expression to seem even more sinister…

The man's crimson eyes widened…clearly shocked. "You're insane…there's no way that I'll ever let you do that to my son!"

"I'm not sure that you're in a position to stop me…do you Ivan?" Volitaire held his hand out towards one of his ever-silent employees. The guard obediently gave him his gun…

"He's only a child for gods sake! He doesn't care about training or taking over the world. He just wants to play games and have fun!" the woman suddenly screamed at him. Her face was flushed and her eyes were panicky…full of fear for both her son and the man kneeling next to her.

Ivan hushed her gently…before staring bravely at the gun that was now pointed straight at him. The cold muzzle of the gun placed delicately between his eyes.

"Don't hurt them…please don't hurt Kai or Alya…please. I'll take Kai's place…I'll do anything you want I promise…just don't hurt them." His words were sincere and heart felt…begging for the lives of his wife and child.

"Don't you get it yet…**_son_**" Volitaire spat out the word like it was the foulest of swear words. "I don't need you any more…you've already given me as much as I need…"

He pulled the trigger…

It seemed to take an age before Ivan registered what had happened. His crimson eyes glazed over as the fine trickle of blood flowed between them…from the hole in his forehead. He slumped lifelessly to the floor…

Alya began to scream…

Kai blinked in total confusion as he ran without a thought from behind the sofa. He stood there for a moment…shaking as he stared at his strong papa. Guns were pointing at him…he didn't seem to notice…

"STOP IT!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. He blinked furiously…trying to keep his tears from running down his face…from betraying him. "LEAVE MY PAPA ALONE!"

He panted…his tiny frame heaving with emotion. The guns pointing at him were moved to face his mother again on Voltaire's orders. His grandfather didn't look happy…for once Kai didn't care…

"Papa?" he asked in a small voice. The body on the floor didn't move…didn't smile at him. It just lay there…staring at the ceiling…

Kai looked up too…his confusion deepening when he saw nothing of interest there. It was just the normal white ceiling…just like it had always been. Why was papa just staring at the ceiling?

An unfamiliar noise caught his ear…causing him to look away from his musings. It was mama…tears were flooding down her pale skin. This was odd…he'd never seen his mama do that before…

"Mama" Kai questioned…his voice was shaking. "Why are you crying?"

She just kept on crying…her sobs becoming deeper and more heartfelt as she shook her head helplessly at his question. How could she explain it…she doubted that she would even allowed to. The men pointing the guns at her head were tensing their fingers around the triggers. She knew that it would just take one order…and she would be dead.

"I thought you said that he wasn't here!" Voltaire snarled at the kneeling woman…hitting her across the face savagely. "Do you realise what you've done!"

A foreign feeling was coursing through Kai's veins now. Causing him to see red as he charged at his grandfather. It was something he'd never felt before in his short four years of life…pure and total anger…

"STOP IT!" he shouted again as he pounded his small fists at his grandfather. Or rather his grandfather's legs which were the only parts of him that the small child could reach.

He didn't realise what was going to happen until he had been thrown halfway across the room. The kick to his face caused his throat to burn with the blood that filled it. The room spun around him uncontrollably…his mama was screaming. That much he knew…the sound vibrated through his aching head.

"What kind of monster are you!" Alya screamed…the words seeming to fade in the screaming as she registered that Volitaire was approaching her son. "GET AWAY FROM HIM!" she ordered…her words having no affect.

Volitaire grabbed the child by his arm…pulling the boy to his unsteady feet. Before he proceeded to drag him unceremoniously from the room. As soon as they drew level with his mother however…Kai seemed to respond. Digging his feet into the now blood soaked carpet.

"Get off you're hurting me!" Kai yelled…growling as he used every effort he could to try and disentangle himself from his grandfather's grip.

"Mama, help!" he pleaded with the sobbing woman who had never failed to help him before.

Kai didn't think Volitaire's words to be of any importance until a dark clothed man towering over his mother obeyed the order. Shooting a hole through his mother's head like what had happened to his father.

She slumped down next to his father on the floor. Her growing blood stain joining his in taking over the carpet. They were the same…they were together…Kai was alone…

Kai finally fell limp…enabling his grandfather to pull him from the room…

With his exit the room seemed to fade into blackness…

The blade breakers didn't move from their positions, as the darkness grew thick around them. Before it finally seemed to depart…like sun chasing away a particularly dark mist. The blackness faded away…leaving them in a sun-brightened field.

Kai…the real present Kai remained where he was. Sitting down with his knees pulled tightly to his chest…and his face hidden behind his arms. A soft breeze ruffled his hair…

"Hey buddy" Tyson's voice sounded rather shaky as he knelt down to place a reassuring hand on Kai's arm. "Its over…"

Kai didn't move…didn't even stir…

Suddenly a familiar red light glowed…like an isolated red mist that was placed exactly in front of the team captain. It seemed to grow…becoming more solid as time progressed. Before finally…where there had been mist…a huge beautiful phoenix stood proudly.

Dranzer…

Tyson backed up respectively as Dranzer lowered her vast head until it was level with Kai's. Her fiery feathers seemed to blaze in the sunlight…making her almost blinding to look at. A mystical sounding noise erupted from her throat…it almost sounded like she was singing. It was both eerie and unquestionably beautiful to listen too.

"Why didn't you make it stop?"

Kai's voice…although muffled could be heard startlingly clearly. The pain and exhaustion was traced in every word.

Dranzer's voice turned to crooning…as she moved her feathered head to nuzzle the unresponsive Kai with her beak. For all the world like a mother bird comforting it's young. The great fiery bird settled delicately beside the sitting Kai…still not receiving a response from her young master.

Still crooning softly…the phoenix raised her great wing. Before gently nudging and nuzzling Kai with her smooth beak. Until…grudgingly he responded…resting against the phoenix's warm downy feathers with a sigh as she lowered her wing gently over him.

As Ray watched the giant phoenix sing peacefully to the still form under her great wing…he couldn't help but let a sad smile cross his lips. He remembered the fierce bird all too well from the battles he had witnessed the phoenix fight in. It was oddly touching to see that monstrous beast now acting like a mother hen protecting its young.

'_It was tough for all of you to see that…especially Kai. But it was important that he face up to his memory before he would be able to accept it and start to heal.'_

Ray spun around in surprise at hearing the familiar deep voice. He started as by his side he came face to face with the speaker.

"Drigger?" the neko jin questioned in dumb disbelief as he stared wide-eyed at the large white tiger that he knew so well. It was true that he should have expected this…seeing as Dranzer had already appeared in this strange place. But still…this was his bit beast…it was amazing to be able to see him so…solid and…real…

Meanwhile…the others were having similar reactions. Tyson was stood in the middle of a curled up Dragoon…asking the blue dragon a million questions…forgetting to pause to make it possible for him to be answered.

Max had given up on questions after making sure that Kai was going to be all right. The blonde had shown his joy at seeing Draciel by climbing onto the giant tortoise's shell. He was currently trying to persuade a rather nervous looking Hilary to join him…sporting a grin as he walked perilously near the edge of the shell in an effort to show her that it was perfectly safe. Hilary seemed to be covering her eyes a lot as she gazed at his antics.

Only Dizzi was missing…although Kenny didn't seem to notice as he stared in awe at the bit beasts around him. Even Rage was cautiously stroking a large wolf that seemed to have flames instead of fur. Tasmine seemed to be enjoying it…until Rage leaned forward to whisper something into the beast's ear.

"Its time…"

Tasmine's head drooped in disappointment and unease as she worriedly licked her master's hand. No one would notice their absence in the excitement of spending time with the bit beasts. No one would notice that they were gone until it was already too late…

Still…even though it was breaking the wolf's heart. Tasmine would never disobey her master…so she did as Rage asked. Transporting them back to the hotel room…where the sleeping bodies of the blade breakers littered the floor.

Rage shook her head as she unsteadily made it to her feet. She needed her thoughts to be clear for this…her plans to be clear for this. Her beyblade glowed softly in her pocket…it was time to do it…

Her hand was shaking as she grabbed a pen…scribbling something quickly onto a blank crumpled piece of paper that was lying on the counter. She held the message tightly in her fist…her eyes burning as she made her way over to the unconscious Kai.

She had never cried before…as far back as she could remember. Even when times had got really bad…she had never shed a tear. This was probably as close as she had ever been to crying…she didn't like it.

"I wish that there was another way…" Rage whispered as she placed the note on the floor directly in front of Kai's face. He was slumped on his side…not even moving as she carefully stroked some of his messy fringe out of his eyes.

Reluctantly she turned away…only pausing as she opened the door that led outside…to the hallway. She hesitated…glancing back…before she spoke something that she wasn't sure she would be able to tell them if they were conscious.

"I'll miss you guys…"

The dark haired girl shut the door gently behind her…she had a mission to complete…

The scrap of paper fluttered softly in response to Kai's gentle breath. On it in black ink were two words…two words that Kai would wake up to.

_I'm sorry_

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I apologise that i haven't updated in a while. But please review this chapter and i'll try to update sooner next time.

Please tell me what you think...i live for reviews...


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